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

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• 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.

• Safe parking programs would benefit homeless

  Safe parking programs would benefit homeless

  Pinning down the number of homeless people in our county is a near-impossible task; experts point out that the best we can do is provide a “snapshot in time.” The most recent “snapshot” was taken Jan. 26, 2011, when 3,774 homeless individuals were counted in San Luis Obispo County — nearly half of them children.

  Given the economy, that number has almost certainly increased. Yet we have not been able to keep pace by providing more services and facilities — at least not yet. Major efforts are under way to build new facilities in two communities: a homeless campus on Prado Road in San Luis Obispo and a day shelter in the Five Cities area.

  Both projects are years away, and in the meantime, there’s an immediate need to provide at least some form of rudimentary shelter, especially in these cold and wet winter months. Opening “warming stations” on the bitterest nights is a start, but we can do more. One of the easiest and least expensive alternatives is to offer safe, secure parking lots for people living out

• Prado Day Center to open warming station for homeless

  Prado Day Center to open warming station for homeless

  The Prado Day Center warming station for the homeless will be open tonight and Friday night because significant rainfall has been forecast, according to a news release.

  Meals and shelter will be provided for up to 50 people each night, and the center is in need of food donations. Donations can be sent to 43 Prado Road, San Luis Obispo.

  For details, email dtorres@capslo.org or call 541-6351 ext. *822.

• Homeless can’t park and sleep after dark in San Luis Obispo

  Homeless can’t park and sleep after dark in San Luis Obispo

  The San Luis Obispo Police Department’s only line of defense against the increasing problem of homeless people parking and sleeping in their cars on public streets is a city ordinance that prohibits people from doing so outside designated areas such as campgrounds and mobile home parks.

• 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.