Free bus rides to warming shelters during ‘Code Blue’ in Rochester

Berkeley Brean News10NBC

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The temperature dropped to 26 degrees on Monday, activating the county and city’s “Code Blue” program. This initiative provides five warming shelters for those without a warm place to stay.

There’s a significant change this year that addresses previous complaints. Last year, you needed to get to the transit center and have a bus pass. This year, those barriers are gone.”

If the temperature or wind chill falls below 32 degrees, anyone in need of shelter can board an RTS bus and request to be taken to a warming shelter. No ID, passes, or money is required.

Miguel Velazquez, CEO of RTS, described the process, “It’s pretty simple. Anybody who needs to get to a warming shelter simply gets to a bus stop, asks the bus driver to get to a warming shelter, and the bus driver will let them ride for free. If that shelter is on that route, they simply go to that destination. If it’s not, all routes lead to the transit centers, so when they get to a transit center, there will be a supervisor who will greet the person at the gate and then escort them to the right gate and the right bus and on the right route to get to the warming shelter.”

This program is available at any bus stop in the city. For a list of the RTS bus routes throughout Monroe County, click here. For an interactive map, click here.

Another issue Code Blue faced last year was disseminating information to those in need. To address this, informational cards are being reintroduced. Officials are distributing cards listing every shelter, their addresses, and the bus lines serving them. These cards are being updated and reprinted for the current year.

Monroe County Executive Adam Bello highlighted the importance of this initiative.

“One of the challenges we have and barriers the community faces is: how do they know where to go when it gets cold? How do they know where those warming centers are? We are dispersing that information out in an unprecedented way this year with those cards that the outreach workers will give to those individuals so they know where to go,” said Bello.

List of warming sites in Monroe County:

  • Open Door Mission, 210 W Main Street, RTS Routes: 16, 17,18,19,20
  • House of Mercy, 285 Ormond Street, RTS Route 3
  • Saving Grace Ministries, 1140 Norton Street, Rochester, RTS Route 4,5
  • Oak Orchard, 300 West Avenue, Brockport, NY Opens Mid-December, No RTS Route

For the first time, the county is also opening a warming shelter in the suburbs. The new shelter, Oak Orchard in Brockport, will open in a couple of weeks.

“When I became a county legislator one thing I noticed is that there were many resources that hadn’t come out to the west side of Rochester,” said Monroe County Legislator Jackie Smith. “And we do have many low socio-economic areas on the west side that weren’t receiving the services that they needed from Monroe County.”

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