Effort Underway To Give Homeless A Place To Go In Single-Digit Wind Chills
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's bitterly cold outside. That means there's an even more urgent effort to find a warm place for the city's homeless.
Philadelphia's Code Blue makes 300 extra shelter beds available. The city director of homeless services, Liz Hersh, says often the challenge is convincing people on the streets to take advantage.
She says many outreach workers are familiar with the homeless they encounter.
"Outreach has relationships with a lot of the people already. So it's in the context of a relationship that they talk to them, try and find out what they're thinking about, what they want, what they need," Hersh said. "And really just convince them that this is really serious, and please come in -- that there's a place for them to go."
Hersh says no one has died from exposure on the streets of Philadelphia since January of 2015, and the city aims to keep it that way.