City hall will be open on Sunday to provide a daytime weather shelter for the homeless as a major winter storm is expected to deliver nearly 12 inches of snow.
The National Weather Service’s Buffalo office forecast showed temperatures in the teens and below this weekend, and stated, “This is a potentially hazardous situation to be outdoors. If you must be outside, be sure to cover all exposed skin. Frostbite can occur in 30 minutes or less with apparent temperatures of 15 below zero or colder.”
Mike Tucker, coordinator of the city’s Homeless Alliance, said city hall will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Code Blue overnight shelter at the Salvation Army opens at 8 p.m.
Tucker said so far, no sheltering arrangements have been made at city hall for Monday.
“Everything should be back to normal, unless something happens with the weather, and then we’ll have to scramble.”
Save the Michaels and the Lockport Public Library are locations that homeless people regularly access for warmth during the day.
Tina Lamont, a retired nurse who has been visiting the homeless for more than six years, said even in the winter, people are camped out in tents, under tarps or cardboard structures.
“If you see some of them, they’re barely making it through,” Lamont said. “That’s why you’re finding a lot of them sick or with frostbite. Frostbite is disabling. You might end up losing fingers and toes. There’s been a lot of illnesses at the Code Blue shelter and there’s been ambulances taking people to the hospital. Some of them might have ended up with pneumonia. Keep in mind, you’re sick and still out in the cold.”
The Homeless Alliance has been accepting donated supplies and providing them to the unhoused on Fridays from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Lockport Public Library community room, Tucker said.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of support from the community,” he said Friday. “I’ve had a gentleman who saw what we are doing, and he sent our group two tents and two blankets that he ordered from Amazon and had them shipped to us. They were used today. A woman today pulled up with three unopened boxes from Amazon. Inside the boxes were tents, sleeping bags, and 10 beautiful pairs of gloves. We’re getting a lot of crackers and cookies. Our inventory has really grown quite big.”
Tucker said the library has extended the availability of the community room to the Homeless Alliance until April 27.