MIAMI — Ahead of the cold snap, volunteers with The Homeless Voice rolled up to the downtown Fort Lauderdale bus station with an ambulance packed full of supplies, ready to help people living on the streets.

Sean Cononie, who leads the longtime advocacy group, and his team spent Saturday handing out food, socks, blankets and other cold-weather essentials.

“Wrap them around your body. It keeps the heat in you,” Cononie told one man as volunteers distributed thermal blankets.

The Homeless Voice has been advocating for unhoused people for decades, focusing on outreach during extreme weather. Similar efforts were underway in Miami, where other groups were also distributing supplies.

With temperatures expected to dip to or below freezing over the next few nights, the conditions could be dangerous for anyone without shelter.

“It’s important for them to stay warm, but most importantly, it’s important for their friends to make sure in the middle of the night, if they see someone without a blanket, to put a blanket on for them,” Cononie said.

For volunteers like Sally Schwartz, the work hits close to home during nights like these.

“It’s so easy to be selfish and so easy to be greedy nowadays,” Schwartz said. “You have to learn to just love people, because that’s what we’re going to be judged on at the very end.”

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