SAN DIEGO – Record rains have soaked California’s cities, exacerbating a homelessness crisis and endangering thousands of people who are living without consistent shelter.
Amid a deluge of rain on a Sunday night, staffers at Los Angeles’ Midnight Mission homeless shelter opened their doors and dining room to more than 100 unhoused people living on Skid Row.
“People are freezing to their core, so being able to come in and sleep, get clean with showers and dry clothes is a big deal,” said Georgia Berkovich, a spokesperson for Midnight Mission. “For people on the street, once your clothes are wet it’s over.”
The Southern California deluge hits unhoused people particularly hard because the region doesn’t usually get this drenched. New York gets more than 45 inches of rain a year on average while Chicago gets 36 inches .
In contrast, Los Angeles typically gets about 14 inches of rain a year and San Diego just over 10 inches . These historic storms dumped half of that amount , 7 inches, in just two days, February 4 and 5, according to the National Weather Service.