Milwaukee shelter balancing COVID, dangerously cold temperatures

Milwaukee shelter balancing cold, COVID

A Milwaukee shelter is balancing the need to keep people safe from the windchill with keeping them safe from the omicron COVID-19 variant.

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee is expected to be dangerously cold in the coming days. Homeless shelters are now balancing the need to keep people safe from the windchill with keeping them safe from the omicron COVID-19 variant.

The Cathedral Center is a place for single women and families to stay when they have nowhere else to turn. Capacity at the shelter is down roughly 20% so there will be space for anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 to isolate – and capacity won't expand for the cold.

"Traditionally we would line up cots in our conference room. We would add extra cots in the dorm room," said Donna Rongholt-Migan, the shelter's executive director. "We can’t do that now because it’s not safe, so we can’t take in extra people."

SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News

Rongholt-Migan said the Cathedral Center maxed out its isolation space for the first time just before Christmas.

"We were unexpectedly hit with these nine women in about a three-day span. We only had six beds in our isolation room, so we had to quickly adjust and move people out of our medium dorm, sanitize that space, move the COVID-positive people into that dorm, and then sanitize the space they were exiting," said Rongholt-Migan.

The Cathedral Center in Milwaukee

The executive director said that is part of the reason why the Cathedral Center won't be expanding its capacity. Still, they are working with other Milwaukee shelters to make sure nobody is left out in the cold.

"It’s kind of a day-by-day, week-by-week reassessment of needs and resources available," said Rongolt-Migan.

If someone is looking for a place to get inside, call 211. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to connect people with the right resources.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX6 News app for iOS or Android.

Featured