What The Forecast Misses

The U.S. “snowstorm” this week was mostly an inconvenience for me.

School was canceled, rehearsals were rescheduled, and roads were iced over. I wrapped myself in another hoodie, complained a little, and waited it out. However, that same cold reminded me of the people who don’t get to wait it out. While most of us experienced the storm as a disruption, tens of thousands of people across the country experienced it as something much more dangerous: the coldest night of the year with no shelter.

Unsheltered homelessness isn’t an abstract issue when temperatures drop to the negatives. It’s immediate and physical. Hypothermia doesn’t care about how hard somebody is “trying”. Without urgent and immediate support, lives are at risk. When we talk about homelessness, many drift to long-term solutions such as housing supply, zoning, and mental health care. Those all matter very much, but nights like this one remind me that homelessness is also about what we can do right now. Right now, someone is choosing between sleeping under an overpass to escape the wind or staring near a public building with better lighting but no cover. 

So what can we do?

First, support emergency shelters and warming centers. During cold fronts, many organizations extend their hours, which can be expensive and labor-intensive. Donations during winter go directly toward saving lives. Here is the link to a local homeless shelter in Dallas if you feel inclined to support them: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/bridgesteps

Second, donating lightly used winter clothes such as socks, gloves, hats, and thermal layers can help immensely. Outreach groups consistently say that socks are one of the most requested items in winter.

Third, resist the instinct to distance yourself. It’s easy to treat homelessness as “somebody else’s problem”, but the immense cold affects all of us. Job loss, medical debt, family breakdown, and missed rent are not rare. What is rare is a safety net that always catches you in time.

Stay warm. And if you can, help someone else do the same. :)