SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With winter officially here and temperatures already dropping into the 30s at night over the last couple weeks, Sacramento's homeless population has had to find ways to stay warm and endure the cold weather, without help from the city or county yet.
Early in December, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced that unhoused people will have options during the cold weather. One of those options includes opening downtown's Library Galleria as a warming center. However, in order for the warming center to be opened, temperatures must drop to 32 degrees or lower for multiple days.
Dan Aderholt, founder of American River Homeless Crew, dedicates his life to caring for the homeless. He believes that waiting to open warming centers at 32 degrees is simply too late.
"Right now is too late," Aderholt said. "We need to act now to help our homeless right now. Right now the weather out here is freezing at night. It's killing people."
Another option that the city is doing is expanding its hotel voucher program, in which they would use $35,000 of CARES Act stimulus funds to reserve up to 50 rooms per night through the end of December. It is unclear whether the program will extend into January.
The city has not activated any warming centers yet and Aderholt is taking matters into his own hands. He believes we all have to do our part in order to help out those less fortunate.
"We the people, need to get involved more and help our community more and help our homeless," Aderholt said. "They are your brother, sister, mother, father. They are someone's family member and they need to be helped."
ABC10 reached out to Sacramento County and in a statement, they told us:
"Currently the County has not activated any warming centers...but that can change at any time. In the event any jurisdictions in the County open warming centers, we'll send out a notice."
The city also has 62 trailers staged at Cal Expo currently serving as COVID-19 medical isolation units. The Cal Expo board has approved the use of the trailers to be repurposed as an option for sheltering women and children if it's needed and only if they are not being used for COVID-19 patients.
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