Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is denying responsibility after a campaign stop left hundreds of homeless people in Birmingham, Ala. out in the cold last week.
Al.com reports Sanders’ Jan. 18 campaign event took place in Boutwell Auditorium, which is utilized as a warming station for the homeless when it is cold. On the night of Sanders’ event, temperatures dipped to a “feels like” of 15 degrees.
However, due to Sanders’ campaign event, the auditorium was not available to house the approximately 300 people who had stayed at the auditorium per night the previous week.
Don Lupo, the director of the mayor’s office of citizen assistance, told Al.com, "We've never had a night like this where it will be in the teens and we weren't able to open.”
Kelvin Datcher, the state director for the Sanders campaign, said, “I knew last week that the city used the warming station upstairs, but not downstairs. We had no idea that the warming station would be closed. We were downstairs, they would be upstairs. That's what we knew.”
At the same time, Datcher denies knowing anything about the warming stations.
“There was never any conversation about the warming station. Not only did the senator not know, I didn't even know. They were relying on me to relay information up the chain. Had that been a concern, we absolutely would've acted on it.”
Lupo stated he does not believe any homeless people were killed or injured as a result of being forced onto the streets on one of the coldest nights of the year.