Pasadena’s Bad Weather Shelter for the Homeless to Remain Closed in 2022

For the second year straight, people struggling to stay warm and dry in the cold and rain will not have the option of sleeping in a Pasadena bad weather shelter.

When contacted by Pasadena Now, Rabbi Joshua Grater, executive director of Friends in Deed, the nonprofit organization that has been operating the shelter program since 2017, said there was not a location available with enough space to provide the proper social distancing to keep everyone safe.

“If we could do it, there would have only been room for maybe 25 people,” Grater said. “We are now partnering with the United Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd., to do supply distribution.”

Starting in January, when the temperature falls below 40 degrees or when there is more than a 40% percent chance of rain, the unsheltered can go to the church where supplies will be handed out, including ponchos, blankets, food and other supplies, from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays. Members of the Azusa Pacific University nursing program will also be onhand to provide health consulting and skin care. The program will continue through late March. 

On weather activated nights, like last year, a limited number of motel vouchers will be provided. 

“We are hoping to have between 12 and 15 rooms, based on availability,” Grater said. Dial-A-Ride will provide rides to the motels. The one-night vouchers will go first to the elderly, immuno-compromised, and those with mobility issues.

The motel vouchers are not guaranteed, according to Grater, and when there are vouchers Grater said there will not be enough for everyone. 

The Friends in Need shelter was last opened from Dec. 4, 2019 to March 8, 2020. The shelter was also open every Wednesday when Azusa Pacific University volunteers were there to provide basic medical checkups and referrals.

When open, guests of the shelter receive a cot, a sheet, a blanket, and a hot meal, prepared in the church kitchen. Guests leave the shelter by 7 a.m. each day. 

Local activist Sonja Berndt asked about the issue in a letter to the City Council last week. 

“I did not see anything on the City’s website detailing the City’s plans to provide shelter for our unsheltered residents during bad weather this winter,” Berndt told Pasadena Now. “I raised this issue in my letter to the City Council this week which discussed the delays in the unmet-needs report for our unsheltered residents.

“Meanwhile, our hundreds of unsheltered neighbors continue to suffer on the street: every day; every night. Even worse, winter is fast approaching and the community is in the dark about what the City will do to ensure that all of our unsheltered residents who wish to receive shelter in freezing temperatures and rain will receive shelter “

The shelter did not open last year due to the pandemic.

Although the organization had found another location, organizers quickly realized the pandemic presented several insurmountable problems, including quarantining and contact tracing homeless people with the virus.

Several staff members said they would not work in the shelter due to preexisting conditions and to protect their family members should they become infected.

According to the last homeless count conducted by the city, 527 people experience homelessness in Pasadena on any given night.