Many Homeless People Are Stuck in the Cold This Winter

Tuesday night, temperatures were expected to dip to near freezing levels, and cold weather shelters are opening up across the Coast. Many homeless individuals will take advantage of sleeping indoors, but there are still many more that will stay out in the cold. Carlos Urbani, 31, lives in the woods behind Dairy Queen in Gulfport. Urbani says, “This is my area. Here’s my tent.”

Urbani is one of the dozens of people who live along the train tracks. Urbani also says, “I have troubles back in the day. I used to have drug problems. It messed my brain up. I can’t work. I do a little work here and there to make money.”

For the most part, Urbani is able to take care of himself, but when the weather gets cold, he relies on shelters to take him in. Urbani says, “When it gets real cold where I can’t stand it no more.” For all the people who use cold weather shelters this time of year, there are many more who choose to stay outside, and they do so for various reasons. Urbani says, “Because they are so used to staying in the camp area and the tents, and they have cats. We have like 50 cats out here.”

For all the people who don’t go to shelters, they do what they can to stay warm. Urbani closes, “A lot of blankets, and we start a fire, and we curl up with our cats and stay warm.”

The fire pits, food, and water can only go so far on a cold night, and the people who choose stay in the woods gather their supplies and do what they can to survive the elements.