Officials say the city-sponsored winter shelter in Cincinnati will open next month. An exact date depends on temperatures.
The facility is located in the basement of Shelterhouse in Queensgate. It operated there for the first time last winter.
"The winter shelter really targets people who otherwise would have been on the streets or sleeping in places not meant for human habitation such as trespassing at a vacant building or something like that," said Kevin Finn, who is the President and CEO of Strategies to End Homelessness. "So we're trying to bring people in off the streets."
Shelterhouse Executive Director Arlene Nolan said the center did make some changes to operating hours.
"In the beginning, we used to open at nine o'clock at night and now we open up at seven o'clock, that's just when people show up," Nolan said. "One of the things we've found is that people generally get up early and leave out. So by six o'clock almost every year, the men and women would leave the facility."
Last year about 600 people sought shelter from the cold at the facility. Nolan said people did not have issues finding the new location.
The winter shelter has an annual budget of about $106,000 and the city contributes $45,000 to the program.
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