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Extreme cold doesn't fill PADS shelters

Despite temperatures falling in the single digits over the weekend, local PADS shelters said they didn't notice a spike in people looking for a warm place to spend the night.

“There's this concept that everyone comes in out of the cold,” said Dennis Hewitt, executive director of PADS in Elgin. “But people are very resourceful and will find a place to hunker down when the weather changes.”

Although the temperatures may rise and fall quickly, Hewitt said their numbers rarely spike as easily.

He said they had about 35 people in the shelter Sunday night, which was actually down from a week before.

“The logic is that we would be overwhelmed, but it doesn't always happen in this community,” he added.

Hewitt said the reason may be there is more sympathy around the holidays and people who may not normally get along with their families, turn to them for help when its extremely cold.

Ryan Dowd, executive director of Hesed House in Aurora, said he also did not expect a large increase over the cold weekend.

“Some communities have a large population of people who sleep on the streets and have to come in from the cold,” Dowd said, but that is not the case with Aurora. Dowd said most people in need of shelter found somewhere to stay once the weather started turning colder.

However, if people in the Aurora area are in need when it gets extremely cold, Dowd said, Hased House stays open 24-hours-a-day. It will continue to do for the next several days until temperatures warm up.

Although there hasn't been a large increase in the number of people looking for shelter, the conditions make it that much harder for those still looking for a place to spend the night, said Darlene Marcusson, executive director of Lazarus House in St. Charles. Marcusson said they had one man trying to get to the shelter by foot over the weekend and he was soaking wet when police picked him up.

Families who aren't homeless may still find themselves in need of a warm place to stay in the case of a heat or water emergency, Hewitt added. In this weather, broken water or heating can be life threatening. As a FEMA emergency shelter, the Elgin location is available to help in such a situation, Hewitt said.

Marcusson said the St. Charles shelter is open 24/7 and encouraged anyone without heat to come in.

“We are here to help if anyone is in a situation that isn't safe,” she said. “We always have a bed here for our neighbors.”