Homeless Come In Out of Cold

They’ve been sleeping outdoors through the summer and early fall, hidden in abandoned cars, huddled in doorways, slouched under trees.

But the prewinter chill has weakened even the hardiest, and the blankets that once provided warmth now turn to morning coats of icy dew.

On Friday night, with Orange County-run shelters opening for the winter season, many homeless people were able to sleep indoors for the first time in months.

About 30 people, mostly recent immigrants and veterans, spent the night on mats at Good Samaritan Church of Westminster. They were given coffee, spaghetti dinners and, best of all, recycled wool blankets.

“I came here to be warm for a change,” said Randy Smith, 40, who said he has been homeless for six months. “I’m tired of being cold.”

Homeless shelters have been at capacity for weeks because of unseasonably cold temperatures. The county’s shelter can’t accommodate all of its estimated homeless population of 18,000. But homeless advocates said the 250 spaces will make a difference for many needy people.

Shelters are usually operated at National Guard armories in Fullerton and Santa Ana, but the Westminster church was pressed into service Friday night because the armories were being used for training exercises.

Ironically, only a fraction of the spaces Friday night were taken. Shelter operators said they won’t reach capacity for a month, when word of its opening spreads through the homeless community.

The homeless were bused to the shelter from Santa Ana, where many had been sleeping in cars, parking lots and under trees and benches in the Civic Center. Some carried their meager belongings in backpacks, others in plastic bags. One man pulled along a huge suitcase.

Francisco Javier, 48, carried his only possession--a book on chess strategy--in a plastic bag.

The machinist from Mexico City said he had been sleeping in the parking lot of a medical clinic for the last month. He said he didn’t mind, even when people stole his blankets and all he had to bundle himself in was his light jacket.

But lately, with the drop in temperatures, he has been unable to sleep. Even when he has blankets they are of little use.

“Every time I sleep outside, I wake up drenched in the morning,” Javier said. “The fog. It turns my blanket to ice.”

Many homeless people said they came to the shelter to escape more than the cold weather.

Three homeless men have been slain in recent months in Orange County, two of them in Santa Ana. News of the killings has worried many people who spend their nights on the streets.

“It’s very scary,” Smith said. “It’s been on a lot of people’s minds.”

Many of the homeless said they would return to the shelter every night in the coming months. Most said they are unemployed and have little hope of finding jobs.

“I’d rather be homeless outside of Santa Ana than inside Santa Ana,” one young man said.