The first major cold snap is forecast to hit Richmond this weekend, but City Hall is still struggling to provide shelter for the homeless who have no where to go.

At best, the city will open two temporary shelters for single men and women, but will have no shelter operation for homeless youths or adults with children, Sherrill Hampton, director of housing and community development, told City Council.

Her admission came at a special meeting Monday where council cleared the way for the administration to spend $1.33 million in federal funds for shelter operations at two churches and two nonprofits.

But Ms. Hampton said it could be January before even one of those spaces was in operation.

“It is not right that women with children will be on the street,” said 3rd District Councilwoman Ann-Frances Lambert.

“We are not living up to our moral obligation to the most vulnerable in the city,” noted 5th District Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch. “We have an onslaught of evictions and not even one site for the medically fragile and moms with kids.”

Richmond has long operated an overflow shelter when temperatures were predicted to be at 40 or below, primarily in North Side.

With private shelters largely full, the city, during a brief plunge in temperature last month, temporarily opened separate shelters for single adults at the Linwood Robinson Senior Center, 700 N. 26th St. in Church Hill, and at the United Nations Church, 214 Cowardin Ave. in South Side.

Those two locations are expected to be open again beginning Saturday, Nov. 12. Weather.com’s 14-day forecast indicates temperatures at night, including wind chill, will fall below 40 Saturday and remain below 40 through Wednesday, Nov. 23, with at least three days at or near freezing.

Those two spaces are expected to accommodate 100 or fewer individuals, far short of the minimum of 150 beds that Ms. Lynch and others have estimated would be needed.

Most of the money that council approved is to be spent with Commonwealth Catholic Charities, which is to receive $121,000 to improve the space it plans to use and $944,000 to operate a 60-bed shelter through April and during the high heat and heavy rainstorms of summer.

However, CCC does not yet control the shelter space it planned to lease in the Salvation Army’s building at 1900 Chamberlayne Ave., council was told.

Ms. Hampton said CCC and the Salvation Army are still in the process but have not inked a formal agreement. She told the council she hoped that the lease arrangement would be formalized this week.

CCC, which previously expressed concern about the 60-bed limit, now says it is waiting for the city to provide a contract, as well.

The city, meanwhile, has not come up with additional operating funds to enable RVA Sister’s Keeper to open a 40-bed shelter for adults with children at 2807 Hull St. or for United Nations Church to operate a 30-bed shelter, even though that church is being used as a temporary space.

Lincoln Saunders, the city’s chief administrative officer, told council he hoped to introduce a funding proposal by Monday, Nov. 14, the next council meeting.

Separately, a zoning issue could hold up the fourth location’s opening. City Council was told that the city had finally notified Fifth Street Baptist Church in North Side that it would need a special use permit (SUP) to be able to operate its proposed 30-bed shelter for more than seven days.

The city began working with the church in July after it volunteered to provide shelter space, but waited until late October to give notice, council was told.

Ninth District Councilman Michael J. Jones expressed his frustration that a church that had put in a lot of work to help the city address the shelter issue “was not given all of the information that was needed.”

Obtaining the SUP could take two months, officials said.