Pasadena’s City Council is looking into a few sites that could serve as a bad weather shelter, a resource the city has been without since the beginning of the pandemic.
If a site is located, the shelter won’t be open until the winter of next year, 2023-2024. Ryan Bell, who serves on Northwest Commission for Pasadena, says that’s too long.
“It’s cold and wet and it can get really cold, even in Pasadena,” Bell said.
Where things stand
On February 14th, the Commission voted to send letter to the city council members urging them to find a site for a bad weather shelter. This was a week before another brutal winter storm brought record snowfall to Southern California.
Who is unhoused in Pasadena
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According to the Commission’s letter, Black and Brown people are disproportionately represented among Pasadena’s unhoused residents.
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Of the 512 unhoused residents identified in Pasadena in 2022, 32% identify as Black or African American “despite only representing 8% of Pasadena’s general population and 44% identified as Hispanic/Latinx compared to 33% of the general population.”
Progress has been slow, Bell says.
Currently, the city has a weather-activated motel voucher program that helps unhoused residents stay safe during intense weather conditions. The program is run by the non-profit Friends In Deed who also offer bad weather supplies such as food and emergency kits.
But as Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater told LAist, “It’s not like I hand you…
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