Thousands of blankets slated to be sent to local homeless shelters won’t arrive, leaving shelters to scramble before temperatures drop.
The yearly shipment of thousands of disposable blankets from the Federal Emergency Management Agency was diverted to other natural disasters this year, said Settle Madden of the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness.
As a result, the first batch of blankets won’t arrive until the end of January at the earliest, she said.
“This is not a time that we want to be without blankets,” Madden said, adding the blankets are key to “preventing illness and death.”
Although the Tucson area saw 84 degrees Thursday, a record for the date and was 1 degree below the all-time December high temperature, the National Weather Service in Tucson said that will change this weekend: Showers could arrive Friday and a widespread freeze is expected Sunday morning.
Shelters were counting on 10,000 blankets, which are made out of recycled material and designed to be used for a day or two, said Victor Hightower, public relations and outreach coordinator for the Gospel Rescue Mission.
Every night, the mission houses about 150 people who need blankets, many of whom sleep on the floor due to a lack of bed space, Hightower said. The mission also hands out blankets to people who sleep on the street and stop by the shelter for blankets.
The shelter was supposed to get 40 boxes of 12 blankets each to start off the winter season, Hightower said. Those supplies would be replenished in the following weeks.
Local organizations are trying to gather 5,000 blankets and sleeping bags before Dec. 23, Madden said.
