Jeff Herron is the city of Lexington’s homeless prevention manager. He said when winter temperatures are extreme, many people who wouldn’t ordinarily seek shelter look for a warm place to stay. The city also activates its emergency winter weather plan when temps drop below freezing or other harsh weather drops in.
“And that's going to trigger some different things within our system. For one, we rely on our congregate shelters to relax restrictions on persons that have previously been suspended for programmatic or behavioral reasons. Oftentimes, unless it's a very serious offense, we would be allowing them to return to shelter.”
