Homeless people in Birmingham, Alabama had no place to go in the 20-degree weather Monday night after a Bernie Sanders rally used the venue typically giving them an overnight stay.
The city typically opens Boutwell Auditorium for homeless people when temperatures dip below freezing, but it was rented out earlier in the day by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference – as it is every year – for Martin Luther King Day celebration. That night, it was rented out for Sanders' Democrat presidential campaign event.
With no backup venue, the city's homeless were literally left out in the cold.
"We've never had a night like this where it will be in the teens and we weren't able to open," Don Lupo of the mayor's office of citizens assistance,
told AL.com.
Lupo urged people not to blame the SCLC or Sanders' campaign for the problem, but instead to use the situation to look for alternatives when Boutwell can't be used.
Birmingham city spokeswoman April Odom told AL.com the city was going to work with police and homeless shelters to get people a warm place to stay.
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