City shelter figures are down

Fewer homeless people than usual took advantage of D.C. shelters during the weekend, despite subfreezing temperatures and efforts to get them off the streets, city officials said yesterday.

A little more than 1,500 people stayed in homeless shelters Saturday night — the coldest night so far this winter — when the temperature dipped to 8 degrees Fahrenheit.

The shelter gets more visitors on a typical night, and the city even had a fleet of hypothermia vans to bring the indigent indoors, said Lisa West, an operator for the District’s hypothermia hot line.

“All the shelters were not full, but I don’t know why,” she said. “A lot of the times, I guess, [the homeless] have friends they go visit, or whatever.”

Other city officials also were at a loss yesterday to explain the low turnout at the shelters.

Debra Daniels, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Human Services, said she had not reviewed the weekend numbers so she could not offer an opinion.

The city has about 6,840 men, women and children living in various types of shelters or on the streets.

“Depending on the circumstances, we make every effort to make sure that people out in the cold are taken to emergency shelters,” Ms. Daniels said.

One such circumstance is homeless people refusing to enter a shelter no matter how cold the temperature. Ms. Daniels said staffers and volunteers in the city’s six hypothermia vans tried Saturday night to persuade those people to come indoors. The van crews also distribute blankets, clothes and warm drinks, then check up on them periodically, she said.

“Getting folks to come inside, sometimes that can be a challenge,” said Chapman Todd, regional director of Catholic Charities Housing and Support Services, which operates three large emergency hypothermia shelters in the District.

Some homeless people who stayed at the hypothermia shelters Saturday night complained about the experience when they were back on the street yesterday afternoon.

Carolyn Montgomery, 50, a native Washingtonian who has been homeless most of her life, said she preferred prison to shelter life. “They have crazy people in [shelters], and some real old, old people.”

Mr. Todd said Catholic Charities’ shelters, which can accommodate more than 500 people, had an average or high occupancy Saturday night. Only one of its shelters, on New York Avenue NE, was not filled to capacity.

He said he did not know why the city’s nightly census of homeless shelter clients, which includes the Catholic Charities’ shelters, recorded bellow-average use. He said people are at risk for hypothermia when the temperature falls below 32 degrees. He urged homeless people to use the shelters and call the city’s hypothermia hot line at 800/535-7252.

Authorities reported no hypothermia deaths from Saturday’s cold weather. However, the Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating whether hypothermia caused the death of a homeless man found Thursday in Adams Morgan.

The National Weather Service forecast higher temperatures for the rest of the week but said lows will remain below freezing. The service called for a high of 51 today and low of 32 tonight. Temperatures are expected to drop as the week progresses, with a chance of snow Wednesday and Thursday.

Sean Johnson, 21, a carpenter from Charlotte, N.C., living homeless while looking for work in the District, said he was grateful for the aid provided by the city’s shelters. He stayed at one of Catholic Charities’ shelters overnight Saturday.

“It was real cold last night,” Mr. Johnson said as he headed into Union Station yesterday afternoon to panhandle enough money to get back home. “It’s not cold there.”