The freezing cold bites hardest on those who don’t have a home to head to at the end of the day. It doesn’t stop. Some may be lucky enough to have an abandoned home (“bando”) that provides shelter but not utilities. There are encampments with tents around the city that provide strength in numbers. Shared resources last longer and different hustles combine to provide more varied goods. But not long enough if the City of Columbus bulldozes your encampment after threatening “trespassers” with arrest.

On the night of the Winter Solstice – the longest night for those with nowhere to go – candlelight vigils are held across the US mourning and remembering the unhoused residents who have passed. According to the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless, 112 local unhoused passed in 2024 in Franklin County. The Coalition believes 400 unhoused passed over the previous three years.

There are always the classic methods of staying warm – layers (multiple socks, long johns under sweats, under pants, thermal under shirt under hoodie under coat, gloves, warm hat). If you layer up enough and have access to hand and toe warmers to beat the deep bone chills, you can make it many hours out there in the direct chill. Covering your face can help or hurt depending on factors like facial hair. My beard stops some masks from holding tight enough. Condensation forms from my breath and my beard gets wet enough to freeze.

Fires are good if you can find a place out of the way to burn them. Trial and error will teach you how close to be, close enough to stay warm, not so close as to sweat or get burned. You may end up with a hot face and cold back, but things could be worse. Because frostbite is a real danger for those who stay out in the cold, especially if the clothing isn’t adequate. Many sex workers I have met have toes that are permanently damaged, because you can’t make much money if bundled up too much. They are some of the toughest out there in so many ways. And if you see a houseless person on one of our street corners missing a limb, more than likely they lost it from frostbite after being out all night.

I can’t tell you how many times in my walks I have felt like a wimp for letting my teeth chatter when all bundled up and I pass someone who is wearing far, far less and looking for a date without any visible signs of discomfort. (“Looking for a date” as in needing money for their addiction.)

My drop-in, Hear We Our, is usually open 9pm to 5am when there are no other spaces with the lights on. When it gets very, very cold, we stay open 24 hours a day. We need help keeping our doors open and getting people the stuff they need. Coats, blankets, hygiene products, cleaning products, food, disposable dishes, are needed.

I guess I should mention I walk a lot in the wee hours of night (or maybe it became obvious). I am used to the cold. I also spent four years as a canvasser for a political organization, and there were definitely four winters in there. We would be dropped off for four-and-a-half to five hours every weeknight to knock on door after door.

The Occupy Columbus tent (Occupy Wall Street) in front of the Ohio Statehouse saw some frigid nights. It seems like ages ago leftists and others did a 24-hour vigil there for 335 days. When I slept there, in 2011 and 2012, I went with layers and the sudden addition of propane heaters. Some of those nights dropped into single digits, and bone chilling temperatures amplified by roaring winds at 30 mph. The protection of the popup tent, surrounded by a second layer of protection, would occasionally be picked completely off the ground despite attached to at least 600 pounds of various donated items.

That was the only time I slept out in the frigid air. Those nights will stick in my memory because of that feeling of the cold coming, not from the outside, but the inside.

There is being cold on the way to your car, walking the dog, or maybe shoveling the driveway. Most of us have a warm car or home to get back into. For many though, the low temperatures are something to contend with for hours and hours at a time. Have some perspective the next time you say you are “freezin your ass off.” It can be more literal.

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The Free Press’s January Salon this Saturday night on Zoom will focus om Housing First! Issues. Writer JJ Verbino can be reached through his Facebook page.