2019 Polar Vortex Recap

During the last week of January we experienced record cold temperatures in Washtenaw County. We are very proud of the way in which everyone at the Shelter and in the wider community rose to the occasion to assist those experiencing homelessness. Scarlett Middle School hosted an additional overnight warming center that was staffed by SAWC volunteers and community members stepped up their financial giving and dropped off much needed supplies at the Delonis Center. We not only met the needs of each client who showed up at our door, but through the help of the PIT (Point in Time) Count Team we also identified two additional neighbors in need who we were able to serve and made connections with eight more.  Warming Shelter participation reached the highest numbers we have seen since the 2014 "Polar Vortex" and we have served more than 355 unique individuals so far this season. 

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Take a look at some of our media coverage: 

The Associated Press filmed our Director Dan and one of our clients at St. Mary’s to talk about daytime warming centers and the footage was picked up by  USAToday, ATT and MSN as well as being used in a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

For radio, WEMU talked about warming center and one of our clients was interviewed for a national NPR segment that sadly did not air.

Mlive/Ann Arbor News covered our extra overnight shelter and warming centers. All About Ann Arbor (“Click on Detroit”) wrote about the  PIT count and warming centers. There was also coverage in the Michigan Daily.