As sure as leaves turning colors in autumn and flowers budding in spring, night court offers its own indications of a changing season.

With a unusually warm winter to-date, the puffy Northface jackets have been slow to appear. Only recently have they started to emerge.

But there is also a particular change of theme in arrests and arrestees: Marked up-tick in homeless folks in court.

Tonight alone has homeless people getting arrested for sleeping on subway seats and park benches, loitering and trespassing.

The reckoning suggests an unspoken contract between the homeless and the police. The deal can be interpreted as: Arrest me for nonsense and I get a warm place to sleep.

The temps are down to freezing in New York City for the first time this year and folks of every stripe have to do what they can to survive.