Santa Fe officials highlight CodeBlue response, warn city shelter capacity falls short

City of Santa Fe emergency-management and youth-and-family-services leaders told the Quality of Life Committee that the CodeBlue cold-weather activation has grown into a formal, multi-agency program that protects lives during the coldest nights of the year while also serving as a training and preparedness exercise.

"We're doing two good things at once," Kyle Morgan, the city's director of emergency management, said, describing CodeBlue as both a humanitarian response and a way to exercise the city's incident coordination for other disasters. Morgan said the program activates for approximately the coldest 3 to 5 percent of nights, using capacity as the primary trigger.

Leah Azul Solaveri, youth and family services division director, said CodeBlue combines no-cost transportation, multiple sheltering options and partner outreach targeted at encampments and high-traffic outdoor sleeping locations. "The objective is twofold: first, immediate protection…