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Esau Baxter got lucky this holiday period. His sister picked him up and took him to spend Christmas in Vallejo. For New Year’s luck has found him again – he’ll be spending Monday at the men’s shelter at the Veteran’s Memorial Building. 

Usually, Baxter sleeps outside, even though lately the weather has been so cold that he’s been waking up at about 3 a.m. He walks around, gets his blood circulating, and then can’t get back to sleep because of the chilly air. 

During the cold and rainy winter months the shelters serving Berkeley’s homeless can often be filled to capacity. This year the shelters have had regular rooms available, with up to five spots available for a new occupant each day. 

The opening of the Oakland Army Base with an extra 100 beds for the winter season has taken some of the pressure off the Berkeley shelters, and the weather has been another boon to those without a regular roof.  

The clear skies make it possible for people to stay outdoors, said Terry Kalahar, case manager for the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project. And the outdoors can be preferable. 

“Most of our clients prefer sleeping outside,” said Leanell Austin, resource counselor for the Berkeley project. “Some of them are claustrophobic or have other issues,” she said, “so we try to give out sleeping bags.” 

Sleeping outside, said Kalahar, means “less tension, no rules. They want to do their own thing.”  

“Around this time we have a lot of them that feel the holidays are depressing,” said Austin. “This is sometimes a bad time for our clients.” 

This holiday season enough beds have been available so that people have been able to secure a space by calling one or two days in advance. Once someone has a bed, that person can keep it for 30 days. If someone spends more than two days outside, the person loses the bed to the next caller. But each client gets extra days to spend out of the shelter for the holi- days. People often take off for the weekends, said Kalahar, and the shelter may have five or six beds open on a Monday and then fill up by the end of the week. 

Baxter calls the Veteran Center shelter the “Cadillac of shelters,” because, he said, “It’s as comfortable as you can be in a shelter. You sleep in a bed, and they give you breakfast.” Also important, he said, was that the leave time is 7 am, unlike many shelters where sleepers must be woken up and out by 5 a.m. They then have to come back and get in line for breakfast at 9:30 a.m.  

Baxter, who has been homeless for two years, takes off his wire framed glasses when speaking about the difficulties of his situation. “It’s a struggle. You’re up a lot of hours and you’re on your feet.” Usually, he said, the shelter opens during the day so people can go in, take a shower, and drink a cup of coffee. When shelters don’t open during the daytime, he said, you have to spend the whole time outdoors, “where you can get into some mess.” 

Monday the shelter was closed during the day, so people who are sleeping outside won’t get the opportunity to get inside for a while. Which led Baxter to conclude that his best bet was to get a room that night. Eventually, he hopes to think beyond night by night dwelling, and find a permanent place, probably by using a roommate service to alleviate cost. 

“A lot of us don’t want to do that,” he said, “but hey, we’ve been living in shelters.”