Chicago · cold-season report
Jan 2 – Jan 31
visits
searches
directions & calls
Visits to the map, per day
Jan 2
Jan 19
Jan 31
For cities and counties
See who’s looking for warmth, and where help runs out.
the city report
A cold snap, in numbers.
Every number comes from the Warmth Map itself: filters chosen, capacity updates, when people were searching, and more. Here’s a sample month.
8,001
visits to the map
1,073 on the coldest day, Jan 19
1,608
directions or calls
Someone picked a place and took the next step to get shelter
17%
filter combinations weren't available
People used multiple filters, and 17% of the time, results didn't match everything they wanted
Sample data from a simulated 30-day range. Your report uses your city’s own numbers.
what people need
What people search for, and when.
Filters show the need behind each search. The hour-by-hour shape tells you when outreach and longer hours matter most.
Top needs, searched.
Searches using each filter over 30 days.
Overnight
1,803
Food
876
Families
801
Walk in
666
Bathrooms
650
Charging
601
Women only
507
Stay
Who
Amenity
Access
Evenings run busiest.
Searches by hour of day. Demand climbs from 4 pm and peaks at 8 pm.
12 am
6 am
12 pm
6 pm
11 pm
Night
Morning
Afternoon
Evening
8 pm peak · 613 searches
where people search from
Searches by starting point.
Each dot is a patch of about 400 m. Bigger means more searches; the color is how far the nearest open site was. Patches with fewer than 5 searches are never shown.
LAKE MICHIGAN
Far South Side · 1–3 mi to help
How far help was.
Median distance from where people searched to the nearest open site.
29%
of searches started a mile or more from an open site · 579 of 2,030
Under ½ mi
451
½ – 1 mi
876
1 – 3 mi
553
Over 3 mi
26
Not known
124
Dot size is searches, from 5 to 34 in one patch. 153 patches, 2,030 searches with a location.
unmet need
Where the help runs out.
When a search finds no site anywhere in the city offering that combination, we count it. It’s the clearest signal of where to add capacity next winter.
Searched for
Found nothing
Rides
60%
Overnight
Wheelchair
42%
Overnight
Showers
21%
Overnight
Women only
12%
Families
Overnight
6%
Stay
Who
Amenity
Access
outcomes
From a search to a warm room.
See how many people found a place and set out, and which doors brought them to the map in the first place.
Most visits end at a door.
Each step counts a page load, never a person.
7,360
saw the list or map
3,738
opened a place
1,608
tapped directions or call
They came back again.
Returned to the map within 7 days of tapping directions or call. No ID links the visits; the device keeps a note for a week.
21%
came back · 338 of 1,608 taps
After directions
225 · 19.5 h
After calling
113 · 6.2 h
Hours are the median time before coming back.
Who used the map.
Visits by audience. 18% came through 211/311: a link a call-taker sent, or the bookmark on their own desk.
Public
5,249 · 82%
Sent a link by 211/311
640 · 10%
211/311 call-takers (desk bookmark)
512 · 8%
Your call-takers use it too.
How people arrived. 18% came from 311 and call-center links, where a call-taker shared the map.
Direct app visit
34%
311 / call center
18%
Partner links
12%
Social media
9%
space changes
Watch beds fill and free up.
Staff mark a site open, limited, or full as the night goes. The report shows how often space ran low, and how long it lasted.
130 changes made a site fuller; 53 gave room back.
Full lasted longest: about 8.4 h before going open. Times are averages of how long a site stayed in the first status.
Filling up · 130
Open
Limited
55 · 4.5 h
Limited
Full
44 · 2.5 h
Regular
Limited
22
Regular
Full
9
Room again · 53
Full
Limited
29 · 6.5 h
Limited
Open
18 · 2.9 h
Full
Open
6 · 8.4 h
Open
Limited space
Full
Regular hours
during an alert
Know which sites kept up.
When an extreme cold warning goes out, the report shows which sites confirmed their status and which ones your team should call.
Extreme cold warning: day one.
Within 24 hours of the alert, 200 of 294 sites had confirmed today’s hours or space.
68%
of sites updated within 24 h
Pacific Garden Mission
Open · updated just now
Garfield Community Service Center
Limited space · 30m ago
Harold Washington Library
Open late · 2h ago
94 sites haven’t confirmed yet
Counts, never people.
The report is built so it can’t identify anyone. No cookies, no accounts, and no identifiers on those who need help. Site updates are tagged by site, not by the staff member who made them.
Who searched
Never recorded
Where they searched from
Rounded to ~400 m
Exact location shared
Dropped before recording
Bring the Warmth Map to your city.
We set up the map, find each site’s official sources, and send your team a report after every cold event. Chicago is live today.