I have been watching the forecast in Detroit, aware of what wind, ice, and cold mean for people who are forced to stay outside.
In December, Detroit experienced a stretch of volatile winter weather that shifted from rain and relatively warmer air to strong winds, snow showers, and sharply colder temperatures. Overnight lows dropped into the teens and single digits, and high winds increased exposure risks and contributed to power outages across southeast Michigan.
Situations like this place people without shelter at immediate risk — exactly why Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, one of the region’s largest shelter and service providers, moves to add capacity and keep its doors open when temperatures become dangerous.
What DRMM is telling the public
In a report aired by WXYZ, DRMM President and CEO Chad Audi summed up the organization’s cold-weather posture in plain terms: they do not want anyone outside dying because of the cold, and during dangerous conditions, the mission does not turn people away.
The phrase can sound like a slogan until you see what it implies operationally.
WXYZ reported that Audi has led the organization for 29 years and said DRMM shelters about 2,500 people nightly across its system. During Code Blue, he described the mission’s willingness to improvise capacity, including putting a chair or a cot on the floor to make sure someone is indoors.
When Code Blue is called
In Detroit’s shelter system, Code Blue is the phrase that signals emergency cold conditions and triggers a different set of expectations.
Outlier Media described Code Blue as tied to temperatures around 20 degrees or lower, and noted the basic protections that come with it: shelters are supposed to provide a place to sleep for anyone who shows up or connect them to a location with space, curfews are lifted, and some shelters that normally close during the day must remain open. The same reporting also noted that suspensions and bans may be paused unless someone poses a danger to others, and that staff are expected to consider safe transportation when people leave.
How DRMM fits into the citywide response
DRMM is not operating alone. In Detroit, the cold weather system is built as a network that includes city agencies, libraries, recreation centers, nonprofit shelters, and a coordinated entry process.
The City of Detroit announced earlier last month that it was activating warming centers, respite locations, and an overnight standby emergency shelter option in response to extreme cold, with the Detroit Health Department noting that temperatures were expected to drop into the single digits and wind chills into negative ranges.
Under that plan, DRMM activated an overnight standby shelter location at 13130 Woodward Avenue, which ran from the evening of December 12 through the morning of December 16, with access available by walking in without a referral or by calling the Detroit Housing Resource HelpLine at 866-313-2520.
Although the December activation has ended, it shows how Detroit opens access quickly during extreme cold, using the same partners and entry points each time.
The strain behind added shelter space
When shelters say they are adding capacity, it can sound straightforward, though the reality is far more complicated.
Extra capacity often requires repurposing rooms, extending hours, and shifting staff schedules, along with additional meals, blankets, and cleaning cycles. It also means managing stress in crowded spaces where residents are exhausted and sometimes medically fragile, while trying to preserve dignity and safety under pressure.
The issue is especially relevant in Detroit right now, as DRMM is also facing public scrutiny over conditions in at least one facility. On December 28, ClickOnDetroit reported that residents in a women’s and children’s shelter raised safety concerns, including shared bathrooms without locks.
When extreme cold hits, shelters are asked to do more inside buildings that may already be under strain, and readiness depends not only on added resources but on whether people feel safe enough to come inside.
The city’s shelter capacity, by the numbers
Detroit has been trying to expand its shelter and warming center bed count going into winter.
In a late November update about its winter housing and shelter plan, the city said it had more than 1,200 shelter and warming center beds operated with local partners, and that the number would increase to just over 1,400 shelter beds. The same release said warming centers opened in early November and provided an additional 100 emergency shelter beds for the cold weather months.
The numbers are important for two reasons.
First, they show the system is not improvising from scratch, and there is capacity that can be scaled.
Second, they also show how quickly a surge can squeeze the network. A few hundred additional people seeking shelter during a deep freeze can push even a large system toward crowding, especially if other challenges, like power outages or transportation barriers, limit how easily people can reach a bed.
Helping someone find shelter during extreme cold
This is the part of the story I always want to make practical, because readers ask the same question every winter.
If you are trying to help someone access shelter in Detroit during extreme cold, the city has directed residents to the Detroit Housing Resource HelpLine at 866-313-2520, which has been operated with expanded hours during declared cold emergencies, and the city has also described walk-in access at certain emergency shelter activations, such as the DRMM location on Woodward Avenue.
Outlier Media also emphasizes that under Code Blue, shelters should not simply send people away, and should instead make accommodations or connect people to another site with space.
For readers, that is the key takeaway: the system is designed so that showing up should lead to a bed or a pathway to one, especially when cold becomes deadly.
Winter and the margin for error
Every winter, Detroit organizations prepare for the cold, and the work can begin to sound routine.
This winter season has felt different, in part because the weather has been more volatile, swinging rapidly from rain to deep cold, and in part because public attention on homelessness and shelter access has been sharper, driven by high-profile tragedies and sustained debate about what the city’s safety net should look like.
I see this work resting on trust—from residents who need help and must believe a shelter is safe enough to enter, and from the broader public, including donors and city leaders, who want to know emergency resources are being used effectively and humanely.