Temperatures in Cleveland are expected to reach about 17 degrees Friday night, which has homelessness advocates urging people to find shelter overnight.
The city has extended hours at four of its recreation centers to work as warming centers. The Michael Zone, Lonnie Burten, Zelma George and Collinwood Recreation Centers are open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. in the event of a citywide winter weather advisory, which includes Friday.
The city has two overnight shelters: the Norma Herr Women’s Shelter on Payne Avenue and Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry’s Men’s Shelter on Lakeside Avenue, which is often called "twenty-one hundred" after its street number.
“Last night we were able to transport two people seeking shelter from our recreation centers [to] Norma Herr and 2100,” said Emily Collins, a senior advisor to the city of Cleveland's mayor. “If someone is there and needs shelter overnight, we’ll make sure everyone can access shelter.”
Norma Herr is currently being renovated and expanded. Cuyahoga County has relocated some residents to overflow space at 2710 Walton Avenue in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood during construction.
Melissa Kitchen came to Cleveland from Urbana Thursday. She said she’s been stopping in stores and bars to escape the cold. She was able to stay with a friend Thursday evening but will be staying at the Herr shelter Friday.
“It’s a good place. It’s nice,” Kitchen said.
Not everyone shares the same feelings. One woman, who declined to give her name outside the Herr shelter Friday, was critical of the shelter’s conditions and safety. The woman, who said she stays there frequently said it was the “worst shelter in the city.”
The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) Executive Director Chris Knestrick sympathizes with people who worry about safety or conditions at Cleveland’s shelters but says the cold is just too dangerous to risk sleeping out.
“It’s heartbreaking and heart wrenching that people every year freeze to death here in the city, and it’s something that is totally preventable with the right intervention,” Knestrick said. “I know it can be difficult and hard for people, but it’s better than sleeping on the streets.”
Knestrick said he knows of at least one person who died while sleeping in the cold in Cleveland this winter.
Collins said anyone with concerns about safety at the shelters should reach out to the county or the United Way to address those concerns.
“It is a little scary to enter a shelter that is a congregate shelter,” Collins said. “I know that the county and shelter systems are taking every appropriate measure to make sure that there’s enough space for everyone and that protocols are in place at each shelter to ensure that everyone is warm and safe.”
People can call the United Way at 211 for shelter information.
