Changes coming to Fresno’s warming centers this winter

UPDATE:

A new north Fresno warming center location and transportation agreement helped the 2023 resolution pass unanimously during the Dec. 14 city council meeting. 

The ACTS Foundation’s building at 4798 N. Marty Ave. will serve as the new fourth warming center for the residents of north Fresno, replacing the Pinedale Community Center. ACTS will also manage the site and not the Poverello House — who are currently managing the remaining three locations after approval from the city council during their Dec. 7. meeting.

All warming centers will also enter an agreement with a taxi company to help transport residents who arrive at locations that have reached capacity. The service will work in addition to the free Fresno public transportation rides offered when the centers are activated.

“Poverello will have access to a taxi company that they will be able to call and take them…to make sure that they’re not out on the streets if one of our other shelters are at capacity already,” said Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias. 

The changes did not alter the $356,500 amount agreed on during the last council meeting since the Poverello House will not operate the new site.

The temperature threshold also did not change. Arias, who helped lower last year’s cooling-center threshold to 100°F, said the city’s findings did not support the need for a lowered threshold. 

“What we ended up finding out with the new threshold was; we don’t get any more use at 100°F,” Arias said. “It wasn’t until that 105°F level that we saw people actually using the cooling centers.”

Instead, the city worked to maintain overnight services and food for center patrons, which Arias believed was a more efficient use of resources. 

All changes are effective immediately.

Original story below:

Fresno warming centers this winter will be managed by a local non-profit.

Fresno City Council on Dec. 7 unanimously approved a resolution to transfer control of the city’s warming centers to the Poverello House, along with new operating guidelines.

The council, however, also agreed to bring the item back into Thursday’s agenda after concerns were voiced regarding the replacement of a now-closed center and the absence of a suitable contingency plan to address capacity issues.

The new resolution states that control of the warming centers will be transferred to the Poverello House, with up to $356,500 from the city to help with operations.

Under the new Fresno warming center management guidelines, the temperature needed to activate the warming centers will remain at 35°F or lower. A new standard 72-hour notice to announce the planned opening of the centers was also included.

However, cooling centers next summer will open only when temperatures are forecast to be 105°F or higher, a 5°F increase to 2022’s guidelines.

A noticeable omission from the resolution was the Pinedale Community Center, which has been used as a warming and cooling center for years.

Councilmember Mike Karbassi said that concerns were raised by his constituents on the center’s close proximity to neighboring Pinedale Elementary School. Residents said that some of the center’s patrons made their way into the elementary school during school days, concerning parents and students.

“Kids have to face that sometimes when they leave school,” Karbassi said. “But I feel the school site, especially for a school like Pinedale, should be a safe haven, at least during school hours, for kids. We have to look at where people are concentrated, but also…the effect it had on Pinedale was very rough.”

What can replace the Pinedale center in Fresno?

Councilmember Miguel Arias raised concerns about the closing of the Pinedale Community Center, while acknowledging Karbassi’s issues. When Arias asked the city staff if there was a replacement center lined up to serve the residents of north Fresno, it was revealed that there were none.

Deputy City Manager Jennifer Ruiz announced that the city put out requests to areas that may be capable of replacing Pinedale, including local churches. Staff did not receive any responses.

Arias then asked what the plan was in the meantime for northside Fresno warming centers while the city searched for a replacement. Ruiz and City Manager Georgeanne White pointed to language in the resolution showing that FAX buses will provide free rides to centers “whenever they are activated” — a provision that carries over from the 2022 resolution.

The situation still left Arias feeling that he could not comfortably support the resolution as written.

“These are not individuals like you and I who can simply walk half a mile to a bus stop and take a two-hour bus ride to a shelter at all times in the night when it’s freezing,” Arias said. “I think it’s incumbent on the city staff to find an alternative; it’s incumbent on the community to step forward with an alternative if the Pinedale site is too close to a school site.”

Arias added that the four centers — Maxie L. Parks Community Center, Ted C. Wills Community Center, Mosqueda Community Center and Pinedale Community Center — were consistently at capacity, or close to capacity, during his time volunteering at each one. He was troubled at the possibility that centers would be forced to turn away people due to vacancy issues without a readily available replacement.

“By not providing an alternative up north…folks may take the bus, but by the time they get to the center, there will be no space for them,” Arias said. “We’re going to be left with the potential of having homeless residents sleeping outside of community centers in the cold, or allowing them in an over-capacity situation where the fire marshall, I’m sure, is not going to appreciate us packing in people.”

Councilmember Luis Chavez asked if the capacity of the four centers, as well as their average occupancy numbers, could be put on record to reach his decision.

Ruiz reported that Ted C. Wills Community Center’s average attendance was 73, with a capacity of 73, Pinedale Community Center’s average attendance was 14, with a capacity of 30, Mosqueda Community Center’s average attendance was 30, with a capacity of 49 and Maxie Community Center’s average attendance was 63, with a capacity of 65.

Councilmember Luis Chavez asked city staff what was the protocol for at-capacity centers when more residents came.

Aaron Aguire, the director of Parks, After School, Recreation, And Community Services, reported that centers were in communication with one another to help direct people to centers with vacancies. Those people were then able to travel to the centers through FAX or were taken there by local advocacy groups who offered transportation. 

The city, however, was not obligated to take residents to those new locations, and the 2023 resolution did not hold Poverello responsible for providing transport. 

Chavez ultimately supported the resolution, but said he’d want to see language added outlining a plan to help transport residents when capacity is reached. 

Fresno City Council concluded their discussion by approving the transfer of warming center operations to Poverello, citing the urgency to get operations started with cold weather fast approaching.

However, they’ll meet again during Thursday’s meeting to solidify plans to identify potential replacements for the Pinedale Community Center, and to solidify guidelines for what Poverello’s responsibility will be for residents who come to centers who have reached capacity. 

Residents ask to open Fresno warming centers more often

Though the matter wasn’t brought up during the council discussion, multiple people drew attention to the temperature guidelines written in the resolution during public comment. 

The 2022 and 2023 resolutions both state that the warming centers will open when the temperature is forecasted to be 35°F or lower, but residents say the threshold is too low. 

Housing advocates like Bob McCloskey asked the council to amend the resolution to have the activation of warming centers triggered at 40°F, instead of the current listed trigger of 35°F.

“I know you only open the centers when it drops to 34°F, but that is inhumane. As we know, elderly people and those that suffer from chronic disease, can die at temperatures above 40°F, even. So 40°F would be a very reasonable temperature to set this at,” McCloskey said.

The Centers for Disease Control warns that “while hypothermia is most likely at very cold temperatures, it can occur even at cool temperatures (above 40°F) if a person becomes chilled from rain, sweat, or submersion in cold water.”

According to records from the National Weather Service in Hanford, if the trigger for activating the warming centers remains at 35°F or lower, then they would have only opened for 11 out of the first 90 days, or first three months, of 2023 — five days in January, five days in February and one day in March.

If the threshold were to be increased to 40°F, the warming centers would have opened for 46 days — 15 days in January, 21 days in February, eight days in March and two days in April. 

There are no plans on the agenda to discuss amending the temperature threshold during Thursday’s Fresno City Council meeting.