The Warming Centers for single men and women are open from October to April. The Warming Centers housing women and children are open year round. These shelters, whether serving a single population or families, strive to serve the immediate needs of homeless persons by providing a place to sleep and a meal. Warming Centers were designed to serve as a temporary shelter situation. In today's homeless crisis, where affordable housing is scarce, transitional shelters full, SROs decreasing, jobs that pay a living wage hard to acquire and public assistance declining, residents of Warming Centers are forced to remain in the Centers for longer periods of time.
Shelter space is scarce.
9,874 of those people who were denied shelter were individuals in families. Warming Center residents reflect a diverse homeless population. The violence of poverty adds to this traumatic climate.