Homeless shelters see fewer people in the summer

The heat is keeping many people in their homes, but during the summer many homeless stay outside of their shelters

“Last night we had 95 people within the emergency shelter, the men’s emergency shelter,” said Ray Tullius, the Opportunity Center for the Homeless executive director.

Nearly half the number of men who stay there during the cold winters, and others shelters don’t change much throughout the year. The heat, we’re told, gives people a chance to get outside crowded shelters.

“All shelters are crowded, and so many will go back to the streets and live on the streets,” Tullius said.

“You can take stuff off in the summer, the heat isn’t really gonna kill you,” Dave Ritchey, a homeless man, said.

Heat can still be dangerous. Triple digits temps make it easy to get dehydrated, or even fall to heat exhaustion or heat stroke, which can be deadly; it can easily get to the homeless.

“Walking with a backpack on your back, long sleeve shirts on, no shorts to put on like everybody else,” said Aaron Williams.

Many have to pick between being outside where there’s plenty of space and staying in a crowded but cool shelter. Although the shelters deal with fewer people in the summer, they still have problems

“It seems like air conditioners go down regularly, so between the ten shelters that we have my maintenance men are moving between shelters making sure that air conditioners are going,” Tullius explained.

If you would like to help you can always donate to local shelters to help pay for the high summer electric bills.