Confronting record-breaking low temperatures earlier this month, some of Cambridge’s unhoused residents sought refuge in shelters offering extended hours last weekend, while others faced the cold.
Harvard’s two student-run homeless shelters, Y2Y Harvard Square and Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, opened during the day in addition to their regular overnight hours.
Y2Y Volunteer Director and Tufts junior Annie S. Li sent out an email calling for emergency volunteers during the cold snap, asking anyone interested to sign up for extra shifts during the day. Y2Y operates on a peer-to-peer model, where volunteers aged 18 to 24 — many of whom are Harvard students — serve guests of similar age.
“The extreme weather puts our guests in danger because Y2Y normally operates as an overnight shelter,” Li wrote. “As a result, in order to provide a safe and warm space for the guests, we will be opening the whole day Saturday, Feb. 3.”
“We actually did not know how many people we’re going to expect, which is really surprising that we were able to get more than enough volunteers who were willing to come in,” she said in an interview last week.