Southern California blizzard warning will unleash 'real danger' upon unhoused people in LA County

As unusual wintry weather descends on the Los Angeles area this week, homeless service providers are scrambling to help unhoused people get indoors and away from near-freezing temperatures.

From Thursday to Saturday, Southern California is expected to feel the heaviest impact of a massive winter storm hitting the entire state, forecasters say.

Advocates in LA are worried about temperatures dipping into the low 40s and heavy rain and winds leading to deadly cases of hypothermia among people experiencing homelessness in the city. In the mountains of LA County, forecasters predict extremely rare blizzard conditions will drop up to 2 feet of snow.

"Anybody who's on the streets is very cold already and heading for real danger," said Andy Bales, the longtime president of Union Rescue Mission in LA.

LA County's massive unhoused population includes more than 40,000 unsheltered people living on the streets, in cars or in abandoned buildings, which makes them particularly vulnerable to cold and wet weather.

During extreme weather, homeless services providers must work fast to scale up efforts to help unsheltered people, said Margot Kushel, a medical professor and director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco.

"The sheer scale of the problem can make it difficult to act quickly," Kushel said.

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How are homeless shelters preparing for the storm in LA?

Dozens of warming centers across LA County were taking people in Wednesday as winds picked up and snow began to fall in the San Emigdio Mountains northwest of the city.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority said on its website that an additional 143 shelter beds would be available through March 31 as part of its Winter Shelter Program.

During the most severe weather, the authority said, it was making 142 motel vouchers a day available for people in the city of Los Angeles and 367 motel vouchers available a day for people across the rest of LA County.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is working to "redirect funding" of homeless service providers who need to ramp up operations and make intake more flexible to get people inside as quickly as possible, HUD LA spokesperson Andrew Ten told USA TODAY.

Bales said he got more than 40 calls to his personal cellphone Tuesday and Wednesday from people who wanted to come into Union Rescue Mission from where they lived on the streets or in their cars.

"These people are calling and not being shy about asking for help. We've been able to help everybody so far," Bales said.

This week Union Rescue Mission added 100 beds to its gymnasium, which usually has about 200. In all, the shelter provides 1,300 beds to people experiencing homelessness, many of them in downtown LA's Skid Row.

"We have beds everywhere. Every possible place in our building that could have beds, we have beds," Bales said.

Union Rescue Mission was also on standby to start putting people in hotel rooms once they run out of beds at their facilities, and it has been sending Ubers to pick up people across the city trying to escape pouring rain, Bales said.

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What happens to unhoused people during unusually cold weather?

Dropping temperatures, wind, rain and the possibility of snow in lower elevations are going to be a "disastrous recipe for death by hypothermia in Los Angeles," Bales said.

• Anyone who is unhoused is at higher risk for hypothermia because they may not have proper clothing or blankets, and their belonging get wet, Kushel said.

• Older people and children have a harder time regulating their body temperature, making it more likely they will experience hypothermia on the streets, she said.

• Sometimes people drink alcohol to feel warmer, but doing so can actually have the opposite effect because alcohol opens up blood vessels. That makes someone more susceptible to low temperatures, Kushel said.

• When someone experiences hypothermia, they lose awareness of what's around them, and their heart will beat faster while failing to pump blood properly, she said.

• Many unhoused people may try to light a bonfire during cold weather, the same way people may turn up the heat in their house, Kushel said. But that has led to California emergency rooms getting more burn victims during cold spells, she said.

LA is worst city in the country for unsheltered homelessness

Homeless services providers in LA have long helped people there shelter from extreme heat, torrential rain from atmospheric rivers and wintry weather.

But this week's blizzard "could be the worst yet" for unsheltered people because snow could come down as low as 1,000 feet above sea level, Bales said.

Among adults without children experiencing homelessness in LA, 82% were living unsheltered on a single night in 2022, according to HUD data.

Advocates have contrasted the crisis in LA with that in New York City, where more than 68,000 people stay in the city's many shelters because of a decades-old government decision to guarantee a right to shelter for people experiencing homelessness.

"If you ask for shelter, you get shelter," said Bales, referring to New York's law. "We need that. There's no doubt we need that in Los Angeles," he said.

There will be people who can't – or won't – come inside to escape the cold, Kushel said.

Some people are reluctant to leave behind belongings, pets and other people shelters may not admit, she said.

"Everybody should be human to our neighbors who are in these extreme conditions," she said. "If you see someone who is outdoors and shivering, please don't just walk by them. See what you can do to either get them to a warm place and if not that, to help them stay warm."

Contributing: Orlando Mayorquin

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amid California blizzard warning, Los Angeles homeless advocates worry