The recent icy winds and frigid temperatures have been making life uncomfortable for pretty much everybody. But for folks without a place to call home, the cold snap can make an already-difficult life miserable.
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Rick Reynolds heads Operation Nightwatch in downtown Seattle. The group feeds and finds shelter for people with no where else to go. Operation Nightwatch opens for business at 9 p.m., when other services are closing down for the night, so by the time people get to Reynolds’ door, they’re often pretty desperate.
Reynolds says when it gets this cold, it raises the stakes for people trying to get out of the weather.
“We’re the last chance for shelter for many people late at night,” he said, “So there’s just this sense of anxiety and it amps up everybody’s edginess.”
Reynolds has taken a hit from the cold snap, as well. Operation Nightwatch’s annual fundraising luncheon – which accounts for about 12 percent of the group’s budget -- had to be cancelled because of dangerous driving conditions. He says the 300 box lunches he ordered for the fundraiser will be fed to the homeless.
