To combat the recent cold spell, students turn up the heat and dress in extra layers, but the homeless have limited options to keep warm.,”

Thirteen degrees outside tonight, 16 tomorrow and 17 Friday. It's uncomfortable for Marquette students, but it's deadly for the homeless.

To combat the recent cold spell, students turn up the heat and dress in extra layers, but the homeless have limited options to keep warm.

Charlie Miloich has been in Milwaukee for one year but was in Los Angeles for five years before that.

Miloich, who was keeping warm in the lower church corridor at Gesu Church Wednesday, said he stays at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, 830 N. 19th St., at night.

"People in L.A. used to use burning barrels to keep warm if they did not sign up in time at the shelters," he said. "People did not seem to think those people were homeless, but I knew they were because they had nowhere to go."

The Repairers of the Breach, a day shelter, 1335 W. Vliet St., has kept its door open 24 hours so the homeless can keep the chills away.

According to MacCanon Brown, executive director of the shelter, they decided Friday to remain open 24 hours a day because the weather became life-threatening.

"We have had people come in with extreme hypothermia and had to call the ambulance multiple times," she said.

Weather has filled the shelter with people who would usually be out on the street, according to Brown.

"Through the day 150 will walk through the door, but we have about 70 people staying here at night," she said.

Brown said the shelter will remain open until the weather is no longer life-threatening.

The shelter has been getting people who were turned away from other places, Brown said.

"We have been saving lives," she said. "The morgue is not busy because we are."

To some, Repairers of the Breach is the only place they still have to go to.

Wayne Porter, 40, a guest at the shelter, has been in Milwaukee for 10 months and lived in a tent until last Friday. He said he had to get inside once temperatures got below 35 degrees.

"I had about five sleeping bags so I kept pretty warm," he said.

Porter arrived in Milwaukee from Chicago and became homeless after an arrangement with a relative fell through. He started with a program at the Guest House, 1216 N. 13th St., months ago but dropped out of the program because he said the curfew was too early. He spent the summer living outdoors in his tent.

According to Porter, when the homeless do not get checked into shelters for the night, they go to all-night laundromats, hospitals or any other type of shelter they can find.

"They run you out of the hospital if you aren't spending money," he said.

At times, shelters like "the Breach" are the only option for people to get out of the cold.

"They should have a big building that people can go to as a warming center," Porter said.

According to Paul Biedrzycki, manager of Disease Control and Prevention of the Milwaukee Health Department, the city does not have a specific warming shelter but acts as a coordinator between shelters like the Salvation Army and the Red Cross.

"We are acting as a kind of safety net to coordinate community resources with those who are vulnerable," he said. "I think it is a good role for public health because no non-profits are doing that."

Biedrzycki said they call hospitals to check on people's conditions and react in order to better help those people.

According to the health department, there are no figures on the amount of people who have died of the cold weather the past couple of weeks.

"We make sure that shelters are open, figure out which beds are open and where people should go to get them," Biedrzycki said.

According to Brown, the majority of the homeless population is invisible because they are living at peoples' homes or never actually go to the shelters.

She said that the homeless population of Milwaukee was at least 25,000 because they neither pay rent nor own housing.

The Red Cross of Southeastern Wisconsin, 2600 W. Wisconsin Ave., is providing extra cots and blankets to different shelters they oversee, according to Kate Hinze, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

Getting off the street can be a long process for the homeless, but when shelters provide a hat and gloves, a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup and a warm bed to sleep in, it's a step in the right direction for most people.

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