The Brief
- The Bay Area is experiencing a prolonged cold stretch, with many residents struggling to find warmth.
- Cold weather shelters have opened in Hillsborough and Pinellas County and have remained open throughout the prolonged cold stretch.
- The shelters struggle to find adequate volunteers to staff them due to the unusually high number of hours they need to work.
TAMPA, Fla. – With many families not able to make ends meet and turn the heat on or live without a permanent roof over their heads, Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties have opened up their cold weather shelters for its longest stretch on record.
Men and women lined up early for a shot at warmth on Thursday afternoon as volunteer leader Dale Saville opened the doors at Hyde Park United Methodist Church to let them in.
Bay Area cold shelters
Dig deeper:
The Tampa church is one of Hillsborough County’s largest shelters, out of five cold weather shelters, and is now open this week.
“Normally, we would have a single night anomaly in terms of cold weather. Here, we’re in a sustained period. This is our fourth night of cold weather,” said Dale Saville. “Friday’s going to be the same. Saturday may even be that. So, we may be looking at as many as six consecutive days of cold weather.”
Local perspective:…