The Cost of Seven Degrees
By Albert B Kelly
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been an advocate and
a volunteer for Code Blue since 2013 when a number of volunteers, faith-based
and otherwise, got together to launch a network of Code Blue warming centers in
several of Bridgeton’s houses of worship in response to the death of Joseph Hanshaw who died of exposure in December of that year.
From that time to the present, the program has been an
all-volunteer effort and it has worked well. If you are not familiar with the
mechanics of Code Blue, it’s active when temperatures are 32 degrees or lower
with precipitation or 25 degrees or lower without precipitation. If one of
those two things comes to pass, the doors open from 6pm to 6am so the homeless
can have a warm dry place to sleep overnight.
While the form of Code Blue varies from community to
community, in Bridgeton it is always staffed by volunteers, it is hosted in
churches, and we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to provide bedding, meals,
and wrap-around services. In fact, over the last couple of years, Code Blue has
been part of a larger “Housing First” framework that helps to transition the
chronically homeless into permanent housing with support services as needed.
From season to season we never know what types of demands
will be made on the Code Blue program, nor do we know what types of demands will
be made of the volunteers. Some years, we’ll have a relatively mild winter with
hardly any frozen precipitation and the number of nights when Code Blue is in
effect is few. In other years, the cold will settle and stay as will the frozen
precipitation and Code Blue will be operating for weeks at a time.
Nothing about those twelve hours (6pm to 6am) is easy on the
volunteers and few will work an entire shift. More to the point, few volunteers
want to work overnight and when we’re in a long stretch of nights where Code
Blue is active, we’re often struggling to provide adequate staffing. String
enough nights together and volunteers can burn out before spring ever comes.
That’s not a criticism, just an acknowledgment that it can get tiring fairly
quickly.
That’s why I was more than a little concerned when I
reviewed the legislation known S3422 which was passed by both the Assembly and
State Senate last week. Unlike the current standard, S3422 would require that a
Code Blue be declared when temps hit 32 degrees no matter what. Those 7 degrees
mark the difference between making it through the winter season somewhat intact
or burning out a group of volunteers by the second week in January.
My point is that even under the current standard, for a
variety of reasons, the pool of volunteers willing to work multiple nights and
overnight is fairly small. By increasing, perhaps by as much as half, the
number of Code Blue events to be called during a winter season, it’s a good bet
that we’ll run out of willing volunteers sooner rather than later.
I understand the intent behind the legislation, which is to
save lives by getting the homeless off the streets when temps are freezing or
below, it’s just that I believe that increasing the number of Code Blue nights
will actually work against that goal by placing a potentially much greater strain
on this army of willing volunteers. In a nutshell, people will get used up, burned
out, and discouraged.
S3422 has the feel of an unfunded mandate because it says;
“do more of this”, but it provides no resources to help. For example, under the
current framework, we’ve managed for the most part to provide everyone with a
hot meal, clean linens, and personal items each Code Blue night. It’s not at
all clear that we’ll be able to cover the costs associated with perhaps a
couple of dozen additional nights of food, washing linens, or personal hygiene supplies
let alone finding available volunteers.
Perhaps it’s time for the sponsors, and the legislature as a
whole, to consider providing counties and communities with a robust pipeline of
Code Blue funds, especially if they’re going to move from enabling to now dictating-
which is something you can only do so much of when you’re depending on
volunteers. As dedicated as we are, we have our limits.