Local Students Offer Free Blankets To City's Homeless
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Two Pitt grad students – Quanisha Miller, of Chester, Pa. and Tyisha Williams, of Greenwood, S.C., were on a mission Monday night.
They were out walking the cold, almost desolated streets of downtown Pittsburgh.
They were looking for any homeless people, to give them free blankets.
LINK: Click here to find warming centers
Miller said, "we were home, and we knew it was cold outside, so we found some blankets we wanted to give out to those in need."
Williams said, "some people aren't as lucky as us, to have a place to sleep and stay warm, so we came up with the idea to give out blankets."
At the Smithfield Street United Church of Christ Church, a guy named Matt told KDKA-TV's Ralph Iannotti that he was originally from Penn Hills, but, he now stays in a homeless encampment on the North Side.
But, Monday night, he opted to stay downtown because of the bone-chilling cold.
He said right now he eats for free, and sleeps for free, but, he doesn't want to do it forever.
Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Michael Huss told a late day news conference that the city can't force the homeless to go to a shelter, if they don't want to.
The bitter cold is predicted to stay entrenched in the area until at least Wednesday morning.
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