/ Modified dec 15, 2016 2:13 p.m.

Tucson Needs Thousands of Blankets for the Homeless

Emergency blankets the city requested were sent to other cities hit by natural disasters.

Homless Park Trash spot Clothing, wood scraps and blankets are pictured in a City of Tucson dumpster on Friday, March 13, 2015. The trash was from the deconstruction of the Safe Park protest in downtown Tucson.
Mariana Dale, AZPM

The city of Tucson is asking for donations of blankets and sleeping bags for the homeless.

Officials ordered 10,000 blankets from the federal government to distribute to its homeless population, but those emergency blankets were diverted to other cities that have been hit by natural disasters in recent months.

That means right now, Tucson has no blankets to give out when temperatures plunge at night, said Settle Madden, who works with the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness.

"Unsheltered homeless people will be much colder than usual," she said. "And there’s a possibility that there would be illnesses and possibly even death. So we want to do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen. "

She said blankets of all kinds will be accepted and donations can be made at all City Ward Council offices and a few other sites, listed below.

The goal is to collect 5,000 between now and Dec. 23.

Donated blankets and sleeping bags can be dropped off at the following locations:

  • The following Tucson City Council Offices, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
    • Ward 1, 940 W. Alameda Street
    • Ward 2, 7575 E. Speedway Boulevard
    • Ward 3, 1510 E. Grant Road (Contact Brianda Torres at 837-4225 to arrange after-hours drop-off.)
    • Ward 4, 8123 E. Poinciana Drive
    • Ward 5, 4300 S. Park Avenue
    • Ward 6, 3202 E. 1st Street

  • Sacred Heart Church, 601 W. Ft. Lowell Road, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., enter west side of church property off Los Altos Avenue. Place blankets in corridor outside church. Contacts phone Jordan Francisco (520) 965-5795 and Carl Zawatsky (570) 406-5300.
  • The Salvation Army Hospitality House, 1002 N. Main Avenue, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  • La Frontera Center RAPP Team, 1101 E. Broadway Blvd., #130, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
  • Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness, CPI Care Coordination, 2502 N. Dodge Blvd., 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Phone Settle Madden at 784-5328 if reception is not staffed.)
MORE: News, Tucson
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona