By John Herrick | Boulder Reporting Lab
The Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, the city’s largest shelter in North Boulder, reached full capacity during Thursday night’s snowstorm. As a result, four people were turned away due to lack of capacity, a shelter official told Boulder Reporting Lab.
The shelter expanded its capacity to sleep 180 people during last week’s storm, which dumped about 18 inches of snow on parts of the City of Boulder, according to the National Weather Service. During such weather events, the shelter’s protocol is to increase its capacity to 180 from 160 people and remain open during the day to people who slept there the prior night. The shelter is typically closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., though a new day services center is expected to open this year.
In January, when an Arctic cold front brought dangerously cold temperatures to Boulder, the city partnered with Boulder County to open the East Boulder Community Center as a temporary emergency shelter.