Homeless spend days walking streets as temperatures set to drop into teens five days straight

CLEVELAND - "The shelter is a good shelter the problem is we leave at 8 o'clock in the morning and we have to come back at a certain time in the afternoon. All we do is walk the streets," said Kenneth Chapman who relies on city and county homeless shelter services.

By night, Chapman sleeps inside a shelter. During the day, he and other homeless people are put out on the shelters back onto the streets.

Coalition For The Homeless spokesman Brian Davis said it's a common practice to push the homeless to help themselves.

"The thinking has always been during the day you should go look for a job, housing, other social service, education during the day."

This week, however, has been reported to be the coldest of this winter season so far. As temperatures dip into the teens for five straight days many in the homeless community wonder how they'll make it between shelter hours.

"My community kicks us out at a certain time and we have to go somewhere else, I go to the library I walk around the city; but it's getting too chilly for any of that now," said Adam Weakley who also uses the shelter.

Davis said Cleveland is one of the last cities in the U.S. that doesn't turn the homeless away when they need shelter.

"We have about 2,500 people homeless on any given night and when it gets really cold, we see an increase so we open up additional facilities to make sure people have a place at this time," Davis said.

On a normal night, braving the cold underneath bridges is how some choose to tough it out. But freezing temperatures won't allow it as we journey deeper into this winter season.

"It's like we don't have no food no shelter and we try to survive out here in this cold weather and we not. We human just like anybody else," said Chapman.