Old Man Winter is showing himself this week as temperatures overnight are expected to plummet.
While the sun can look deceiving during the day temperatures are struggling to stay above freezing. And when the sun goes down the mercury is expected to be in the low teens. With the frigid air, it becomes difficult for those that don’t have a shelter to stay warm. Jerome is homeless and says that nights that are well below freezing can be dangerous and exceptionally long.
Jerome explains, “I didn’t want to go to sleep. I didn’t want to take a chance on not waking up. I just walk around, and I slept in the bus station. There’s a lot of people out just sleeping in abandoned houses, they sleep in basements, they sleep all over the place in the street.”
The Lima Police Department says they are seeing an increase in homeless individuals and are concerned about their welfare. They say it’s not uncommon to see a number of people looking for a place to stay warm and they take that opportunity to give information about local resources that are available to assist them.
Lima Patrolman Kaitlyn Weidman adds, “We try and give that information out as much as we can. We’ve used our lobby before because we don’t want people to suffer if they don’t have to. There’s not a lot in our lobby but at least it gets them out of the environment and the rough weather.”
Weidman says it’s not unusual to see some individuals get in trouble with the law or seek treatment just to have a warm bed during the winter.
For more information or assistance on a place to stay, you can reach out to these local agencies:
Lima Samaritan House (419) 222-4663
Lima Rescue Mission (419) 224-6961
Family Promise of Lima-Allen County (419) 879-4600
