Prado Day Center in SLO needs breakfast food for homeless

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• SLO day center for homeless people hopes to open when weather turns bad

  SLO day center for homeless people hopes to open when weather turns bad

  With temperatures plummeting and the rainy season approaching, the Prado Day Center in San Luis Obispo is making plans to give homeless people extra shelter by staying stay open at night when the weather gets nasty.

  The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to spend $5,000 – half of what the center needs – to keep it open as needed through the winter. Dee Torres, director of homeless services, said she hops the city of San Luis Obispo and others can chip in.

  “We’re kind of scrambling,” Torres said. “I can’t promise (it will be open) tonight.”

• Something of a miracle on Prado Road

  Something of a miracle on Prado Road

  Without question we’ve had a cold winter so far, and it’s in that light that I can’t help but wonder and worry about those who are going without in our community — homeless mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and children. The down-and-outs, the mentally ill, the foreclosed upon whose defense against the elements may only be a bridge over their heads or brush along our creeks.

  There are refuges for these unfortunates: Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter, ECHO, churches that take monthly turns giving nightly beds to some of the 4,000 homeless individuals in our county.

  These efforts are wonderful examples of empathetic individuals and groups that are simply trying to hold the line against a misery index that most of us, hopefully, will never know.

• Culinary Carnival to benefit Prado Day Center in San Luis Obispo

  Culinary Carnival to benefit Prado Day Center in San Luis Obispo

  The fourth annual Culinary Carnival benefitting the Prado Day Center is set to take place Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the San Luis Obispo Embassy Suites.

  The carnival is hosted by the Friends of the Prado Day Center.

  It’s the group’s largest fundraising event, with all proceeds supporting the day-to-day operations of the Prado Day Center.

• Cold-weather relief needed for homeless

  Cold-weather relief needed for homeless

  How cold was it? On Tuesday night, it was a frigid 21 degrees in Creston; 30 in Nipomo; and 36 in San Luis Obispo. Temperatures were forecast to be only slightly higher Wednesday night.

  To state the obvious, it is December, and low temperatures are to be expected. Given that, we wonder why local officials weren’t better prepared to open an overnight warming station for homeless people when temperatures dipped this week.

  The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors did allocate $5,000 Tuesday so that Prado Day Center in San Luis Obispo could keep its doors open at night, but that covers only half the budget for the program. The county hopes that the city of San Luis Obispo and the Friends of Prado will contribute the remainder of the funds.

• Prado center in SLO to open tonight as warming center for homeless people

  Prado center in SLO to open tonight as warming center for homeless people

  UPDATE AT 3:45 P.M.: Two local businessmen, Paul Hodgson of California Cooperage and John Villa of Villa Automotive, have contributed $1,000 each and have put out a challenge to other local businesses to contribute, Torres said, not only this year but on an annual basis.

  Torres said in the past the warming shelter has housed an average of 40 to 60 people, and “we’ve never had to turn anybody away.”

  ORIGINAL: The Prado Day Center will open as a warming shelter tonight and Friday night to provide shelter for the homeless from the overnight cold.