A Springfield official said the city's homeless shelters have been full this week during the very cold weather.
Last week, just ahead of the Arctic blast, some faith-based groups, non-profits and the city joined to open an overflow shelter at the Wesley United Methodist Church.
Geraldine McCafferty is Springfield's director of housing and homelessness prevention policy. She said that location has been seeing more people than it can accommodate.
"There's 25 beds there and they actually have now created some overflow for the overflow and if people have shown up after they have filled the beds, they have been able to put some people in motels," McCafferty said.
She said other shelters do have the ability to expand to a certain degree when the need arises.
"Everyone is stretching their capacity as much as they can to make sure that people are safe on these freezing cold nights," McCafferty said.
The city also tries to provide assistance to those living outside towards finding a warm place to go, but McCafferty said some prefer to remain outdoors.
"Outreach is absolutely continuing to those folks to try to reach them to a point to figure out something that brings them inside," McCafferty said. "There have been some people who wanted to remain outside."
In November, the city announced a program dubbed “Project Hope 2.0.” It pairs mental health clinicians with police officers, while providing outreach to homeless people. It also covers a full-time social worker on the police department staff to handle follow-ups and referrals.
McCafferty added that there is less shelter space available right now, when compared to during the pandemic. And she said rising rents associated with the state's housing crisis, along with the weather, has caused more people to not have a home, and has strained existing shelters.
She said the city will conduct its annual count of homeless residents next week and that she expects to see an increase.
