After five days of freezing temperatures, Marin County health officials Monday conferenced by phone with municipal leaders and nonprofits serving the homeless to discuss steps to protect the vulnerable if the cold persists.
On Monday morning the temperature dipped to 29 degrees in San Rafael, and National Weather Service forecaster Bob Benjamin predicted the temperature would dip to 32 or below on Tuesday before beginning a gradual warming trend later in the week. Benjamin said it is unusual for a cold spell to last so long in Marin. The Marin Municipal Water District reported receiving calls Monday from 75 customers whose pipes had burst because of the cold.
Elsewhere the cold snap proved deadly. Santa Clara County officials announced Friday that four homeless men had died there over the previous eight days — three within the previous 48 hours — because of causes related to hypothermia.
Jamie Maites, a spokeswoman for Marin General Hospital, said the hospital’s emergency department has “seen an influx of patients due to the change in the weather.”
“Mostly we see respiratory ailments — like asthma and (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) — that are exacerbated by the cold,” Maites said. “The patients are cared for as needed and then connected with our social workers for any additional care coordination.”
Maites said she didn’t know how many homeless people had received treatment at Marin General since the cold snap began on Dec. 4.
“We don’t track the data,” Maites said.
Sheriff’s Lt. Keith Boyd, assistant Marin County coroner, said no deaths because of exposure had been reported to his office since the freezing temperatures set in around Marin.
Thursday’s teleconference was convened by Miles Julihn, Marin County Emergency Medical Services administrator. Participants included representatives from the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin, Community Action Marin, Homeward Bound of Marin, Whistlestop, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services, Marin County’s adult services division, and the cities of Mill Valley and Novato.
“We mainly talked about strategy for tonight,” said Christine Paquette, director of development for the local St. Vincent de Paul Society.
St. Vincent de Paul administers Marin’s winter shelter program, which for the past six years has been operated from Nov. 15 to April 15 by a large group of Marin churches and synagogues because of insufficient beds in the county’s two permanent shelters. Paquette said on Sunday night 40 men, the maximum number the winter shelter program can accommodate, were housed. Men and women stay at different locations; there was room available for about 10 additional women.
But to participate in any of the county’s shelter programs, individuals must be drug free.
Paquette said, “There are people who have been banned from the program or who don’t want to be in the program because of the sobriety issue. Those are the people we’re most concerned about tonight; the people who have the least ability and function to put their health first.”
Paquette said the Helen Vine Detox Center agreed to admit homeless individuals if necessary Monday night regardless of their sobriety.
Julihn said, “It’s not something we would normally ask Helen Vine to do; we are really in an emergency response phase.”
Homeward Bound’s executive director, Mary Kay Sweeney, said her nonprofit, which operates the county’s permanent shelters, was checking with the 10 families on its waiting list to make sure they have a place to sleep Monday night. Sweeney said she believed all but one family had found some kind of accommodation. Julihn said he asked Homeward Bound to provide a lodging voucher to the family for Monday night.
Julihn said all of Marin’s cities and towns were invited to participate in Monday’s conference call and a similar teleconference on Friday, but only Novato and Mill Valley did so. Julihn said he encouraged the representatives of those two municipalities to ask their public safety employees to be on the alert for homeless individuals who may be in danger due to the cold.
He said, “Our two conference calls have not had really good participation from our law enforcement partners.”
Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com
TO STAY INFORMED
The county of Marin has issued a public health alert in response to the record-setting cold weather. Residents are urged to check daily on elderly neighbors and relatives who live alone. For additional information on resources, call 415-457-INFO or 211 after business hours.