Officials with the Metro Nashville Social Services and the Nashville-based Room in the Inn announced Saturday that, after the many impacts of COVID-19, faith-based groups will return to the city’s Cold Weather Shelter Plan.
Before COVID-19, Metro Nashville and Room in the Inn officials had relied on more than 200 faith centers to help house the homeless during the winter months. As a result, far fewer homeless people could access shelter when temperatures dropped below 28 degrees. Exactly 60 fair centers coordinated with the city last year.
Currently, on Nashville’s coldest nights, 89 places of faith offer overnight shelters between November through March. Additionally, Room in the Inn’s downtown campus and the Nashville Rescue Mission provide cold weather shelter. The city’s Extreme Cold Weather Overflow Shelter is the backup shelter once all other facilities reach capacity.
Metro spokeswoman Harriet Wallace told The Tennessee Star on Saturday that the city is working aggressively to collaborate with community partners.
“The main message is homelessness cannot be solved in a day,” Wallace said.
“But we are absolutely working tirelessly and more aggressively with community partners to create new and innovative opportunities to reduce homelessness and give them more services, support, and access to housing and everything that they need.”
Wallace provided The Star with the following information:
• Metro’s Extreme Cold Weather Overflow Shelter at 3230 Brick Church Pike can hold up to 250 when it’s activated (at 28 degrees) though it is not often at capacity. The number each night varies however, it can shelter up to 250, if needed.
• Room in the Inn’s downtown campus averages 70 people when it houses on cold weather nights.
• Congregations participating in the collaborative (city and community partners) Cold Weather Shelter plan are expected to house a total of 100 next week.
“Each year, we do what’s called a Point in Time [PIT] count — a one-night citywide count — of those who classify as houseless. Due to COVID, we were unable to complete that count last year. The most recent PIT count we have is from January 2020 where our street teams calculated 2,016 classified as homeless/needing shelter,” Wallace said.
“We are estimating that number to have increased slightly in the last year, mostly due to more robust data gathered by expanding and coordinating the community’s street outreach efforts throughout the year. Additionally, as the city is recovering from COVID, we are able to gain more access to those needing housing.”
Wallace told The Star that faith-based organizations may visit Room in the Inn’s website to register their church and get their congregation trained to increase housing.
– – –
Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Don’t you just love it….
“‘The main message is homelessness cannot be solved in a day’ Wallace said”
The truth is that there always has been and always will be those who for whatever reason do not have a permanent roof over their heads. The problem is only made worse by a government that encourages such behavior.
The homeless people that work Due West and Gallatin Rd selling their newspaper that none of the individuals that give them money take, some set in their prop wheel chairs drinking a big gulp smoking their cigarettes and hold up a cardboard sign or newspaper and then when traffic stops for the light to collect the money if someone waves it at them, they get up not needing their wheelchair and go for the money. Then there are two really large minority women that sit drinking and eating waving their signs and they will get up for money if they have to and also as an added prop for these ladies they bring their small, not school age, children to that very busy dangerous intersection possibly as training for future careers. Some institutions and churches that are helping them get federal money imagine that! Its all about money, kind of like hospitals being paid for covid cases. Difficult to leave a easy money making job for one where you have to work. Leftist politicians, the Chamber of Commerce and institutions that make money off the homeless certainly love the homeless, its kind of like taking care of your money making inventory. Leftist want to house them not help them, inventory control is very important. Follow the money!
Nashville has become the slimy beacon of The Democrat Party within Tennessee. Nashville is turning into San Fransisco. The citizens of Nashville are ALLOWING them to turn that city into a CRAPHOLE.
I no longer care about all this covidity; even less about crime ridden (like Nashville), looted, & riotous ALL Democrat-led cities (like Nashville). I don’t have to. All those cities represent, besides comedic value, are real estate opportunities, to buy those burnt crumbs, wait for higher local DEM taxes to fix MY investment value (at no charge to me!), & then sell the improved value properties back to Nashvillains, at a massive profit. So, you worry about & keep up with the DEM vs. GOP thing, I’ll keep up the Cha Ching.
The votes are over. Nothing more to do, besides complain? I suggest milking their corruption for all it’s worth, towards personal net worth improvement, while you can. There’s nothing else to do. Sooo… their corruption can be OUR legal money! – Invest in the stock market, currently being artificially propped-up by taxpayer’s taxes, and invest in commodities, being helped by inflation and global-shipping snafus. And WOW! They have promised to print ME, I mean “us”… trillions of $$$s more, of their corruption money.
Biden calls it, “FREE MONEY”.
I call it, “money stolen from tomorrow’s children”.
Well, not MY children! — Their trillions can go towards yOUR net worth, too! Invest wisely! Start with the S&P 500! Once gains have been amassed, Diversify! Buy hard assets, too! ~ Get yourselves, and YOUR children, above the worry of The Democrat Party’s destructive ANTI-leadership.