US shelters see influx of homeless seeking help amid ‘life-threatening’ winter

Fears about safety of unsheltered people raised as freezing blast of weather sweeps Great Plains and Great Lakes regions

Burke Patten helps run the Night Ministry, a Chicago non-profit that annually supports 6,000 of the Windy City's 60,000 unsheltered. As a ferocious and freezing blast of Arctic weather heads into the US he knows it could be lethal for the city's vulnerable homeless population.

Unfortunately it's going to be very dangerous," said Patten who is Night Ministry's communications manager. It's cold. But it's going to get a lot worse."