When weather conditions turn deadly, Dallas鈥� , built to help those experiencing homelessness, goes into overdrive. Their near daily search and rescue efforts seek out the unsheltered, offering to take them to a warm, safe place, with food and services. Some people take them up on the offer, some don鈥檛.
OurCalling reaches out to those on the streets nearly every day. The non-profit鈥檚 Street Outreach Manager, David Coe, says under these frigid conditions, getting those still out there is harder than ever.
鈥淭he low hanging fruit comes quickly,鈥� explains Coe. 鈥淭he folks that we鈥檙e seeing at this point are the guys that are what we call anchors. They鈥檙e anchored in. They don鈥檛 want to leave their stuff behind.鈥�
Mixed feelings about accepting help
That describes Larry Branch鈥檚 situation. The search and rescue team of Kelly Crawford and John Little found him Thursday under a pale blue puffy blanket, sitting on a DART bus stop bench on Maple Avenue.
When the pair offered him a ride to the Fair Park shelter, Branch said yes. Then he said there was alcohol in his bag, which is not allowed in the shelter. 鈥淵ou got to drink it now,鈥� Little and Crawford told him.
Branch also explained that he had 鈥渁 bike and other stuff鈥� in storage that he needed to lock up. John Little asked if he needed a ride over to storage first.
Branch explained that he also had some weed, which is not allowed in the shelter.
鈥淪ay, look, I don't mean to disrespect you, man. I feel like I'm disrespecting you. But I do want to smoke this stuff up I got,鈥� Branch said. 鈥淎nd if y'all can come back and get me in about 30 minutes, I'll be OK.鈥�
So the OurCalling team left.
Little says this is typical. Someone sounds willing to go, then decides against it. 鈥淸They say] I鈥檓 good. I don鈥檛 need it. But a month or two later,鈥� he explained, 鈥渨e鈥檒l be back out there, taking these people to the hospital because they got frostbite on their toes, fingers 鈥� losing feet, losing hands. We saw too much of that last year and don鈥檛 really care to see it again.鈥�
Search and rescue rolls on
Under the roofed shed at Maria Luna Park Thursday were five bundles of blankets, a person under each. Civilian users of OurCalling鈥檚 cell phone app called in the makeshift encampment the day before. When the rescue effort arrived, every person said they were fine.
鈥淲e鈥檙e good. And warm.鈥� It was 23 degrees at the time.
Thirty minutes later, as Larry Branch requested, the two revisited the 53-year-old still on the DART bench under his blanket.
He鈥檚 not ready. 鈥淣ot yet,鈥� said Branch. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 going though. But I am going. Check on me in 30 minutes. Just being honest, man.鈥�
Thursday鈥檚 OurCalling search and rescue team did find one taker who got in the vehicle.
Jason Neal was shivering. Trying to keep warm, he had draped a flexible, plastic mat around his shoulders like a cape.
Little stopped the van.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to freeze man,鈥� he said and got out to open the back door.
Neal took a seat. The ends of his fingers on both hands weren鈥檛 there. There were white and bloody nubs where the joints had been.
鈥淲hat happened to your fingers?鈥� Little asked. 鈥淭hey fell off last year during the freeze,鈥� Neal answered.
Twenty minutes after picking up Neal, the van reached the cold-weather shelter at Fair Park鈥檚 Automobile building. By Thursday afternoon, about 600 people were sheltering inside. The shelter made space for a total of 1,000. Neal, who hadn鈥檛 stopped shivering, refused to get out of the van.
鈥淭ake me back to where you got me,鈥� he said.
Little said he鈥檇 heard of this happening but never encountered it. 鈥淧TSD or something. He was shaking. He wouldn鈥檛 get out of the van.鈥�
The Fair Park shelter, initially scheduled to stay open until Monday, may now stay open until Tuesday, given predictions of continued freezing temperatures.
Got a tip? Email Reporter Bill Zeeble at bzeeble@kera.org . You can follow him on Twitter @bzeeble.
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