Colorado cities are taking measures to get the homeless inside as temperatures drop.

Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar issued a declaration of temporary housing and shelter emergency for the City of Pueblo Tuesday. For the city, this means local churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other religious institutions can provide temporary shelters.

The City of Denver is also taking measures to get homeless people indoors.

The Department of Housing Stability (HOST) takes efforts to shelter people during severe weather.

“Cold weather poses a serious danger to those staying outside and we encourage people to come inside,” HOST spokesperson Derek Woodbury said. “Denver has ample shelter space available, including day shelters and overnight shelters, for people who are seeking to come inside.”

Woodbury said they monitor weather and, when severe weather is predicted, HOST uses outreach teams to contact the homeless and get them to shelter.

The City of Denver has weather thresholds to alert them of when additional shelters need to open. These thresholds are triggered by heat advisories, wind chill advisories and watches and warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

Generally, for cold weather, this means temperatures below 10°F or 6 inches or more of snow forecasted.

Denver Parks & Recreation activates warming centers at recreation centers during business hours and have access to drinking water, restrooms and places to sit.

If there is severe weather and existing shelters are full or there is a power or gas outage affecting more than 10,000 customers, the city considers additional overnight shelters.

HOST has many shelter facilities around Denver, their website says, so there are specific centrally-located facilities that act as access to the entire system. These locations have longer intake hours and transportation to other facilities, the website says. They help navigate people toward the shelter facility that is best for them. These “front-door” shelters are:

• For individual men: Lawrence Street Community Center, 2222 Lawrence St., 303-294-0157
• For individual women: Samaritan House, 2301 Lawrence St., 303-294-0241
• For families with minor children: Samaritan House, 2301 Lawrence St., 303-294-0241; The Gathering Place, 1535 N. High St., 303-321-4198; Volunteers of America Mission, 2877 Lawrence St., 303-297-0408
• For youth ages 15 through 20: Urban Peak, 2100 Stout St., 303-974-2908
• For those experiencing domestic violence: SafeHouse Denver, 24-hour crisis hotline 303-318-9989
• Service Animals and Pets: Certified service animals are allowed in shelters. Alternately, Denver Animal Protection offers a Safe Haven Program, which provides two to four weeks of shelter for pets of families experiencing homelessness and during severe weather events.

The HOST webpage offers a “Find Shelter” site, where more information can be found about shelters.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless also offers an educational session on Thursday to provide people with information about supporting community members in cold weather.