Homeless look for warm place to stay in frigid cold

TRENTON (WPVI) -- In Trenton Thursday, people were bundling up against the cold and rushing to get somewhere warm.

But as the temperatures continue dropping this weekend to as little as 25 degrees below zero, staying safe and warm is an extra challenge for the homeless.

"I don't walk the streets when it's that cold like that cause I don't take no chances. I'm getting older in age and my bones ain't gonna take it," Albert Lawson said.

"When it gets below zero like that if I ain't got nowhere to be, I'm gonna stay inside," High Duffy said.

For many that means a trip to the Trenton Rescue Mission on Carroll Street.

"We are open 24/7. We don't turn anybody away," Mary Chamberlain of the Trenton Rescue Mission said.

Chamberlain says right now the mission's day center is packed with people who are trying to escape the cold.

And it's expected to get busier the next few nights as the homeless come looking for shelter and a warm bed to sleep in away from subzero temperatures.

"It's too dangerous for them to be out there when it's this cold. There's a danger, not just of hypothermia, but of frostbite," Chamberlain said.

"I'm grateful that we have a place to be inside, the mission. We can be there day and into the night," Linnea Blazer said.

"They keep you out of the cold early in the morning. If you got nowhere to go you can go there," Wilbur Williams said.

At TASK, the Trenton area soup kitchen, the staff says some seem to be lingering inside longer than they might normally, savoring a hot meal on such a cold day.

They're making sure their clients are prepared for the weather outside.

"We try to walk around the room and identify people who we see who might not have a pair of gloves or their shoes might not be in the best condition," Melisa Rivera of TASK said.