Warming Centers And Homeless Shelters Activate Storm Protocol For Christmas Week
Jarrod Zinn
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – Good Samaritan is activating holiday storm protocol in Santa Maria for 2025’s Christmas week.
Warming centers will be up and running.
It’s been many years since the Central Coast has seen weather like this during the week of Christmas.
“It’s been several years,” says Kirsten Cahoon, director of homeless services for Good Samaritan Shelters. “I can’t remember the last time that we’ve had to even think about activating warming shelters on Christmas.”
Temperatures are expected to drop noticeably during overnight hours and rain is in the forecast beginning Tuesday, lasting through Christmas day.
“It’s crazy,” says Cahoon. “We’ve had 80 degree weather for the past few weeks and felt our normal Christmas in California. And then all of a sudden, you know, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we’re going to get hit with this big storm.”
Good Samaritan’s outreach volunteers are canvassing the city and surrounding areas to alert those who may not know a storm is coming.
“It definitely puts a lot of pieces in motion for us looking for staffing on Christmas and things like that,” says Cahoon. “So thank God we have staff that are willing to show up and work to make sure that we can get a roof over everyone’s head during the storm.”
From 6pm to 6am each night the temperature drops and it rains, centers will be open to provide means of warmth, food, and basic needs.
“We will be giving out stockings on Christmas to everybody that shows up,” says Cahoon. “We want everyone to know that it’s Christmas. We don’t have the ability to put up a tree or anything like that, but for many of them, the best present for Christmas on a rainy Christmas will be somewhere where they can just have some warm soup and get out of the weather.”
If you need to find the nearest shelter to you, you can dial 211 or visit ReadySBC.org.
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