We asked folks on the street, “What did you experience during that really cold spell?”
Here’s what some people told us.
A 23-year-old man with MS, who uses a wheelchair, showed us his two frost-bitten fingers. “Someone was wheeling me to a hot spot (grate) on the mall. I had gloves on, but I think they got wet and froze, and the next morning I realized I had frostbite.”
He said he was willing to go to a shelter if the conditions were bad enough, and that he did go to Crossroads after the frostbite incident, since they were wheelchair-accessible. (We also met a woman who said she’d shared her sleeping back with this young man during three of the coldest nights, as they tried to keep warm and sleep behind Urban Peak's The Spot.)
A middle-aged woman said she sneaked into an apartment building and stayed there with her companion. She spent her days at Father Woody’s, and in the Auraria campus library. Out there on the streets, “It felt like the tips of my fingers and toes were gonna fall off, they were so cold.”
A 49-year-old man who gets SSI and is on Medicaid said he couldn’t stay at a shelter during the cold weather because his back-pack with his ID was stolen, and he had no gear so he couldn’t lie down and sleep anywhere, “so I walked around all night to keep warm.” He said that “when things get really heavy I’ll sometimes drink and go to detox.” He listed many health issues, including arthritis, heart problems, panic attacks, and traumatic brain injury, and also showed us his legs which were bruised and swollen with edema.
A sixty year old woman revealed that she has back pay from Social Security but can’t get it because “I don’t have a payee and don’t know how to find one. So I got frostbite and now I’m in a shelter.”
A man in his late 50’s said he and his buddy have a place by the river where they sleep, and that he managed to get through the cold weather using a sleeping bag, mummy bag and blanket. He said he won’t go to shelters, because he’s afraid of the lice, bedbugs and crabs that might be there, and also said that “it’s not safe there, your stuff can get stolen and you can get hurt.”
A couple slept under a semi-trailer. They said they were given trespassing tickets for sleeping there and were made to “move along.” They had nowhere to go so they just wandered the streets all night. They can’t stay together in a shelter and the woman’s mental health issues are such that she can’t be away from her partner at night. (She had just gotten out of the hospital after domestic abuse from her ex.) One day during the cold spell passers-by “threw rocks at us and dissed us--just treat people like we’re human!” Another day they gave up their blankets to a man whose blanket had been stolen, “so we were very cold.”
A 50-year-old man said he tried to get a motel voucher at Stout Street Clinic and they said it wasn’t cold any more so he couldn’t get one. Yet he emphasized how cold it was, and still is. He said that on one cold night he was turned away from both New Genesis and the Rescue Mission. Asked about his experience in shelters, he said that “they need better blankets” and that they should provide information about other shelters. He also wished that there could be posters around town with information on where to go when it is very cold. He said that Ft Lauderdale had a camp where you can sleep and stay when you can’t get into the shelters.
Another 50-year-old man shared that people take other people’s blankets and sleeping bags all the time. “You have to stash your stuff in at least seven different places. And go somewhere where no one else can find you.” He said that one day when he was sitting on the grates to stay warm the police told him to get off. During the cold weather he had plastic to keep his stuff dry but when that was taken his stuff got wet so he went to detox to be warm. He is worried because he now has trouble with his pancreas so he can’t drink, and that means “I can’t go to detox when it’s real cold.”
A housed woman, a retired sheriff who uses a wheel chair, has been hanging out on the mall helping homeless young people for 14 years. She said that during the cold, when it was below zero, there was a man who could not get a bus to get home, so she took him in and let him stay for a couple of days until he could get home. She also took in a young woman with three kids who had just left her boyfriend because of abuse, and was eventually able to help her get Section 8.
A staff person at The Spot (Urban Peak) said that she and other staff spent the days leading up to the cold weather trying to convince their young guests to accept indoor shelter offers once the temperatures drop. But it wasn’t until some of the guests themselves started encouraging others to go indoors, telling about their previous bad experiences in the cold, that people started listening. “They all know that at the end of the day, the counselors and other staff go home to warm places, so their advice doesn’t mean as much as their peers’.”
A 50-year old man who had spiraled downward to alcohol and the streets after his wife and children died said that “It’s the people on the street who have shown me love and caring, who are helping me heal.”
A 54-year-old woman living on the street said that “There are many brilliant people among the homeless--who have just had enough with the system. Being homeless is a blessing for me. If not for them I’d be dead. We protect each other.” As for the way the housed treat her and her peers, she said, “If you’re homeless in this place, you’re a nobody.”
Here’s what some people told us.
A 23-year-old man with MS, who uses a wheelchair, showed us his two frost-bitten fingers. “Someone was wheeling me to a hot spot (grate) on the mall. I had gloves on, but I think they got wet and froze, and the next morning I realized I had frostbite.”
He said he was willing to go to a shelter if the conditions were bad enough, and that he did go to Crossroads after the frostbite incident, since they were wheelchair-accessible. (We also met a woman who said she’d shared her sleeping back with this young man during three of the coldest nights, as they tried to keep warm and sleep behind Urban Peak's The Spot.)
A middle-aged woman said she sneaked into an apartment building and stayed there with her companion. She spent her days at Father Woody’s, and in the Auraria campus library. Out there on the streets, “It felt like the tips of my fingers and toes were gonna fall off, they were so cold.”
A 49-year-old man who gets SSI and is on Medicaid said he couldn’t stay at a shelter during the cold weather because his back-pack with his ID was stolen, and he had no gear so he couldn’t lie down and sleep anywhere, “so I walked around all night to keep warm.” He said that “when things get really heavy I’ll sometimes drink and go to detox.” He listed many health issues, including arthritis, heart problems, panic attacks, and traumatic brain injury, and also showed us his legs which were bruised and swollen with edema.
A sixty year old woman revealed that she has back pay from Social Security but can’t get it because “I don’t have a payee and don’t know how to find one. So I got frostbite and now I’m in a shelter.”
A man in his late 50’s said he and his buddy have a place by the river where they sleep, and that he managed to get through the cold weather using a sleeping bag, mummy bag and blanket. He said he won’t go to shelters, because he’s afraid of the lice, bedbugs and crabs that might be there, and also said that “it’s not safe there, your stuff can get stolen and you can get hurt.”
A couple slept under a semi-trailer. They said they were given trespassing tickets for sleeping there and were made to “move along.” They had nowhere to go so they just wandered the streets all night. They can’t stay together in a shelter and the woman’s mental health issues are such that she can’t be away from her partner at night. (She had just gotten out of the hospital after domestic abuse from her ex.) One day during the cold spell passers-by “threw rocks at us and dissed us--just treat people like we’re human!” Another day they gave up their blankets to a man whose blanket had been stolen, “so we were very cold.”
A 50-year-old man said he tried to get a motel voucher at Stout Street Clinic and they said it wasn’t cold any more so he couldn’t get one. Yet he emphasized how cold it was, and still is. He said that on one cold night he was turned away from both New Genesis and the Rescue Mission. Asked about his experience in shelters, he said that “they need better blankets” and that they should provide information about other shelters. He also wished that there could be posters around town with information on where to go when it is very cold. He said that Ft Lauderdale had a camp where you can sleep and stay when you can’t get into the shelters.
Another 50-year-old man shared that people take other people’s blankets and sleeping bags all the time. “You have to stash your stuff in at least seven different places. And go somewhere where no one else can find you.” He said that one day when he was sitting on the grates to stay warm the police told him to get off. During the cold weather he had plastic to keep his stuff dry but when that was taken his stuff got wet so he went to detox to be warm. He is worried because he now has trouble with his pancreas so he can’t drink, and that means “I can’t go to detox when it’s real cold.”
A housed woman, a retired sheriff who uses a wheel chair, has been hanging out on the mall helping homeless young people for 14 years. She said that during the cold, when it was below zero, there was a man who could not get a bus to get home, so she took him in and let him stay for a couple of days until he could get home. She also took in a young woman with three kids who had just left her boyfriend because of abuse, and was eventually able to help her get Section 8.
A staff person at The Spot (Urban Peak) said that she and other staff spent the days leading up to the cold weather trying to convince their young guests to accept indoor shelter offers once the temperatures drop. But it wasn’t until some of the guests themselves started encouraging others to go indoors, telling about their previous bad experiences in the cold, that people started listening. “They all know that at the end of the day, the counselors and other staff go home to warm places, so their advice doesn’t mean as much as their peers’.”
A 50-year old man who had spiraled downward to alcohol and the streets after his wife and children died said that “It’s the people on the street who have shown me love and caring, who are helping me heal.”
A 54-year-old woman living on the street said that “There are many brilliant people among the homeless--who have just had enough with the system. Being homeless is a blessing for me. If not for them I’d be dead. We protect each other.” As for the way the housed treat her and her peers, she said, “If you’re homeless in this place, you’re a nobody.”
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