ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) — Many people are benefiting from the Code Blue shelter in Tompkins County.

Officials said the shelter is seeing over a dozen people per night. It opened on Nov. 25 on North Tioga Street in Ithaca.

“We did not have anyone utilizing it on that first night, it was a relatively mild evening,” County Administrator Lisa Holmes said. “But then for the next four nights, there were seven to eight people utilizing the shelter, and over the last three nights or so, between 13 to 15 people per night have been using it.”

New York’s Code Blue program provides warm places to sleep during the winter.

In related news, the county has acquired property for a permanent homeless shelter.