Urban Peak Will Try To Help As Much Of Denver's Homeless Youth During Cold Weekend As Possible

DENVER (CBS4) - Bitterly cold temperatures will afflict Coloradans this President's Day weekend and this could endanger dozens of homeless youth. Urban Peak CEO Christina Carlson tells CBS4's Britt Moreno staff is running the dryers to warm up the clothing of the youth who use their resources.

"All the youths' clothing is soaked, and they don't have something to change into" when they come into the facility, she says. "So we just get stuff dry enough as quickly as possible."

Urban Peak in downtown Denver has seen 50% more young people coming into the facilities during this pandemic. Staff has been forced to cut down the number of people they can house because of COVID-19.

Still, staff says all the shelters are experiencing outbreaks and they are concerned about the new variants of the virus.

Carlson says homeless people are three times more likely to be hospitalized after contracting the virus.

This weekend they will try to usher in as many youths as they can to warm up and provide a warm meal, but already they are at full capacity. Urban Peak will sometimes send young people 18 and older to adult shelters in town.

To learn how you can help visit urbanpeak.org.