Lisa Pengov, operations manager for the Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board, told local leaders the city’s homeless shelters are already mostly full as winter approaches. She warned that dozens of people may have nowhere to sleep once cold weather arrives in Toledo, Ohio.
Pengov said shelter operators across the region are turning people away daily. “We’re seeing more and more folks out the street because our shelters are all full,” she said. “Everybody is full.”
For the last 10 years, Saint Paul’s Community Center has added 45 winter crisis beds each season. Pengov said the funding for those beds is not in place this year.
“But now that the beds are down, we anticipate we’re going to have at least 45 more people,” Pengov said. “We’re going to have about 100 people , that’s not going to fit into one location.”
Toledo’s zoning rules only allow overnight sleeping in approved buildings. That leaves warming centers as the fallback, a place to escape the cold but without beds.
Last winter, more than 500 people relied on Toledo’s warming centers just to survive the cold, according to Pengov. Without the additional shelter beds, officials worry that number will climb even higher this year.
The urgency pushed the homelessness board to bring the issue to Toledo City Council this week.
Council calls for community partners
Councilwoman Cerssandra McPherson said the city cannot solve the gap on its own. “I know we are dealing with some shortfalls, but the reality is we must take care of the citizens of Toledo,” she said.
McPherson asked churches, union halls and community centers to step up. “I put out the call to our churches, not just our churches but our union halls, our community centers,” she said. “We’re going to have to partner together to provide warming centers.”
She also directed a request to the state level. “We have a state governor that has a rainy day fund and it’s raining, Governor DeWine,” McPherson said.
The Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board coordinates funding and planning for agencies serving people without housing in Lucas County, Ohio. Warming centers are short-term facilities that offer indoor space and heat but generally do not provide overnight beds.
Pengov said shelter leaders expect the shortage to grow sharper as temperatures drop.
