Frigid temps expose hole in Plainfield safety net

Screenshot of the temperature on my cell.

As I write this, the temperature outdoors hovers at 4° above zero, while the "real feel" is -12°.

This weather is deadly to Plainfield's homeless population, who are in danger of freezing to death if they stay outdoors or in vacant (and unheated) properties overnight in these temperatures.

In times past, the homeless were able to bunk up at the YMCA in such weather. But no longer.

The Plainfield Police Department sent out a Nixle message on Wednesday reminding subscribers that the Plainfield Rescue Squad at West 7th Street and Spooner Avenue was open as a warming center.

Panhandled by a homeless person outside Twin City supermarket on Wednesday, I asked what they were going to do with the weather so cold.

The man said he didn't know; he was aware that the YMCA in Elizabeth offered shelter, but that anyone who wanted to access the service needed to find their way from Plainfield to Elizabeth and he had neither the carfare nor any way to get there.

Asked if he knew about the warming center at the Plainfield Rescue Squad, he said he did not. Not only that, he had absolutely no idea where the Plainfield Rescue Squad was located. (I explained where it was and offered to give him a ride, which he declined.)

This all comes as the annual check on homeless people across the country is coming up.

Here is a clear need that is not being met in Plainfield.

What should be done? And who should do it?

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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