Formerly unhoused man describes how he survived winter hardships

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- In the last six days, extreme temperatures have taken three lives, all three, homeless men in Milwaukee. Tonight, a closer look at how those who have no home are getting by on Milwaukee streets this winter.

With the wind chill hovering just above zero this Thursday night…the sheer material of tents in Milwaukee is the only thing protecting the people inside from the elements.

"You just stay under your blanket, and you don't get out. I slept with other people where we kept each other warm," said Michael Piedt, formerly unhoused.

Michael Piedt was in tents when he was unhoused. His was in West Allis.

"I would get up at 4:00 in the morning because you can't sleep anyway. You know, you're shivering or whatever and I'd just walk downtown because St. James I think they start serving at 7:00 in the morning," said Piedt.

He would walk from West Allis to Downtown Milwaukee for food, and a warm place to stay during the day.

"After that you would like wait for the library to open up and go into the library and warm up there and spend hours in there, go in the bathrooms and run their push button heaters and warm up, dry off or whatever," said Piedt.

Piedt says the population of Milwaukee's unhoused individuals seems to be the same as when he was on the streets in 2011. That's when a friend he'd spent time with living under a bridge died in a blizzard.

"The snow had piled up so high that he was trapped under that bridge, and he froze to death under that bridge in that snowstorm," said Piedt.

Piedt was spared that night. He was staying in a rooming house, and eventually found the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. That's turned his life around and today, he works for the mission, in their food pantry.

"So, I walked into the (Milwaukee) Rescue Mission. They gave me a bed and a meal that night. I had been out there, I don't know, a year or so. It saved my life. It has given me and it's all because of Jesus brought me here," said Piedt.

The Mission has a room with a lot of warm winter clothes like coats and scarves and hats, all for their residents and guests.

"You build up a tolerance to it and you can last out there for a while, but when you get these wind chills like we've had in the last few days, that stuff will kill you," said Piedt.

Piedt tells us the large tent camps of the past are no more. So, outreach can be tough. He hopes people will find the Milwaukee Rescue Mission like he did.