City Of Dallas Taking Extra Measures To Get Homeless Off Streets During Hard Freeze
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - There is an urgent plea to get people who have no where to go, out of the cold in North Texas.
A Hard Freeze Warning goes into effect at midnight Saturday morning.
With that in mind, the city of Dallas has opened another building in Fair Park for shelter for the homeless.
A volunteer who works inside the Automobile Building said there were more than 800 people inside on Friday night, Feb. 4.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson tweeted the reached capacity and they were opening the Tower Building.
Our city's Office of Homeless Solutions will open up the Tower Building @fairpark as an additional inclement weather shelter for people experiencing homelessness. The Automobile Building is around capacity now.
— Mayor Eric Johnson (@Johnson4Dallas) February 5, 2022
"So in the last 24 hour period, we transported 35 to a shelter," Dallas Fire Assistant Chief Justin Ball said.
Due to the extreme cold weather, Dallas Fire-Rescue is taking calls to help pick up homeless people who are seen out in this weather.
Fire and police have instructed people to help respond to 911 calls to help pick up people who need shelter, so they are transporting them to Fair Park.
They're taking them to the Automobile Building until it reached capacity and now the Tower Building.
For the first time ever, Dallas Fire-Rescue has designated two non-emergency ambulances to pick up anyone who is homeless and get them to a shelter.
They've stayed so busy, they're adding a third one.
"Hundreds of people coming here," CEO of OurCalling Pastor Wayne Walker said. "It's not just people that are normal looking for shelter but people who have come out of jail, people got out the hospital with nowhere else to go, we domestic violence victims."
Every other shelter in the city also reaching capacity, they've taken in more people than they normally would.
And there are still people slowly coming to Fair Park for help.
"This is now, the largest homeless shelter in North Texas," Walker said about the Automobile Building.
Below-freezing low temperatures are expected until next Tuesday, so the plan is to keep these shelters open until then.
Dallas Fire-Rescue is still asking anyone who many see someone out in this weather to call 911.
People can also reach out to OurCalling.