GREENSBORO, North Carolina — Multiple viewers sent WFMY News 2 photos and messages concerned over conditions at the Interactive Resource Center, especially during Sunday's rain and cold weather.
Members of the homeless community said they are concerned, as well.
"As cold as it was last night, even though it didn't feel that cold to most people, to a homeless person, it's like even though it might have been 40 degrees outside, it felt like 12 out here with that rain. Being soaking wet; we can't survive it," a member of the homeless community, Judi Webb said.
The IRC wasn't open on Sunday — as it's not open on the weekends. Although Sunday night was not cold enough to be considered a white flag night, the center kept its doors open throughout the night.
Here are those photos: They show members of the homeless community sitting and lying outside of the IRC for some sort of relief.
Kristina Singleton is the Executive director of the IRC. She's aware of the concerns and said the IRC is pushing to extend hours to 24/7. This is a change that is set to come in January 2024.
Singleton said these extensions are a response to some of the concerns people have. However, some Members of the homeless community said waiting until January for extended hours is too long to wait.
"That's too late. You're going to have a whole lot of dead people. A whole lot because they don't know how to live out here in the cold." Webb said.
In the meantime, The IRC has already adjusted the temperature threshold to let folks come in.
"We've extended our emergency shelter from 25 degrees up to 32 degrees," Singleton said. "In the meantime, until we can get that open, and open up 24/7. [We'll] just do anything we can to extend services, extend resources for people who are struggling right now. Originally, our emergency white flag was about absolutely just keeping people alive, as we have been able to extend that and increase our services; we wanted to make that higher, you know, even now, at 32 degrees, the reason that we want an extension of services is because it's still cold at 35 degrees."
It's cold enough Monday night for the IRC to stay open, meaning it will get cold enough for the homeless community to find shelter there throughout the night.