4 Homeless People Die of Hypothermia during Cold Weather
<Four homeless people have died of hypothermia in the San Francisco Bay Area since last week, authorities said, highlighting the danger to people without shelter as the region is gripped by freezing temperatures.
Santa Clara County sheriff's Lt. Dave Lera said at a news conference Friday afternoon that the victims were all men in their late 40s or early 50s.
Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody said her office is encouraging homeless people to seek shelter during the cold weather to avoid further fatalities.
"We want to try to get folks who don't have a home into the shelter," Cody said.
A census conducted in January found there were 7,631 homeless people living in Santa Clara County, many more than the number of shelter beds.
Still others refuse to come to homeless shelters for various reasons, such as not being willing to leave a beloved pet in the cold.
County officials and nonprofit groups are making an effort to provide blankets, socks and ponchos to help unsheltered people protect themselves from the elements.
EHC LifeBuilders, a cold-weather shelter program that opened last month, provides 500 emergency beds throughout the region until the end of March.>
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it's been -0° since late Friday afternoon, there is a neighborhood homeless man near me he lives on Rice Street in St Paul, and has for years word has it he was a Brigadier Colonel in Viet Nam, he had a dog with one of those Rubbermaid doghouses he pushed in a wheelbarrow for the dog, but the city took the dog away because it's inhumane to have a dog living on the streets like that-but I guess humans not so much 