Pueblo Mayor Graham bucks predecessor's approach to weather emergencies. Here's why

Though Pueblo is forecasted for some cooler weather this weekend, it’s not expected to dip below 20 degrees during the short cold spell, a threshold that the mayor’s office has used over the past year to call for an emergency weather declaration and help shelter the city’s unhoused.

In recent weeks, that threshold has shifted.

Mayor Heather Graham, sworn in Feb. 1, has made the declaration three times since her inauguration. In each instance, temperatures were not forecasted to dip below 20 degrees. The forecast was similar at the end of the week, when Graham declared a weather emergency between Thursday night and Sunday morning.

During the periods in which the first two declarations were active, temperatures didn’t drop below 20 degrees. It tracked similarly over the weekend, according to data from the National Weather Service.

The emergency weather declaration allows the mayor’s office to suspend city zoning and building codes so churches and other religious edifices can be used as temporary warming shelters, predominantly to house people who are homeless. It is available between October and March.

The Pueblo Rescue Mission and Crazy Faith Street Ministry are two of Pueblo's more well-known agencies that shelter the unhoused during emergency cold spells.

“Whether it’s 20 (degrees) or 22, 18, or 24, I’m not going to base it off of a degree,” Graham told the Chieftain. “When you go outside, you know when it’s too cold for somebody to be outside or not.”

Former Mayor Nick Gradisar set the threshold at 20 degrees during his tenure. Unless temperatures were expected to drop below that number, it was unlikely he would make the declaration.

There was at least one instance in which Gradisar made no declaration despite temperatures dropping below that threshold, confirmed Haley Sue Robinson, director of public affairs for the city.

The ordinance doesn’t state that temperatures of 20 degrees or below must result in an emergency weather declaration. Gradisar at times said he felt that some among Pueblo’s unhoused could weather those conditions, which some do, and that those who wanted shelter would seek it.

Graham said she doesn’t plan to set an unofficial threshold. Instead, she will identify how long Pueblo is expected to have colder weather and whether it will precipitate and use those factors to help her make a declaration.

When Pueblo is expected to receive a significant change in weather, Graham and city staff receive a packet from Joshua Johnson, emergency management coordinator for the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office.

The packet has information about an upcoming forecast and other weather-related details that help Graham and her staff make a determination. The city incurs no costs when it activates the ordinance.

“If there is a need in the community, we should pass the declaration to allow people to put people inside,” Graham said.

Graham says city has role in addressing homelessness

At times during his last year as mayor, Gradisar said he preferred the city lend assistance to nonprofits and agencies that help the unhoused and not “get into the homelessness business.”

"The city doesn't know how to deal with homeless people," Gradisar told the Chieftain in August. "Our staff aren't prepared to do that. There are organizations out there — that is their mission and that is what they do. They do it much better than the city ever could."

Graham said she disagrees with that approach, believing that the city, mental health providers and those nonprofits “have to all work together” to address homelessness in Pueblo.

“When we have the amount of unhoused people that we do and it’s not being really taken care of, I think at some point the city is going to have to step in and get people off the street,” Graham said.

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Chieftain reporter Josué Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Why Pueblo Mayor Graham is bucking former policy on weather emergencies