PUEBLO — Mayor Nick Gradisar is now able to declare a temporary housing and shelter emergency whenever the weather poses a danger to the unhoused at any point throughout the year.
This will allow the Mayor of Pueblo to make these decisions going forward.
This week, Pueblo's City Council voted 7-0 to authorize the ordinance. Under the previous ordinance, Mayor Gradisar would only be able to declare temporary housing emergencies on or after November 1st of each year.
Mayor Gradisar says this vote will prove to be an important one for the community especially for the city's unhoused.
"That's what we are trying to do here is make sure people are not freezing to death in the winter time or dying of heat stroke in the summertime," said Gradisar.
The mayor says he typically declares a shelter emergency when temperatures dip below 20 degrees, or when conditions pose a threat to human life.
When the City of Pueblo declares a temporary housing and shelter emergency, local religious institutions are encouraged to use their buildings to shelter the city's unhoused.
Religious institutions include churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples.
Sometimes when a temporary housing and shelter emergency is declared, the City of Pueblo opens the Pueblo Transit Center as an overflow emergency warming shelter.
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