NEWS

Cold weather overflow shelter sees improved accessibility, potential changes

BY JUSTIN WAGNER

People experiencing homelessness are acutely vulnerable to cold weather, but advocates and businesses are working with Metro to round out relevant resources as lethality becomes an intensifying concern. Prominent among these resources is the recently opened Brick Church Pike cold weather overflow shelter, which has served an average of more than 90 people each night it has been open this winter. The shelter opens on nights when the National Weather Service indicates temperature lows will reach 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and this year, Metro has collaborated with WeGo to mobilize buses which ferry people to the shelter as needed. “We have slowly, over the last couple years, been trying to advocate for basically more accessible forms of transportation to shelters, including the overflow cold weather shelter, on cold nights,” said India Pungarcher, outreach specialist at Open Table Nashville. Open Table Nashville has also been canvassing around the city to get people to shelter or, should they be unable or resistant, supply them with warm clothes and supplies to reduce the risk of hypothermia. Jay Servais, interim head of Nashville's Metro Homeless Impact Division, said this iteration of the cold weather overflow shelter has been successful due to years of iteration and the city’s collaborators, such as Open Table Nashville and WeGo.

“It's been quite interesting and challenging,” Servais said. “But at the same time, very rewarding. Because when we do open up at 28 degrees or less, we are serving a community that's vulnerable.”

Despite the successful openings of the shelter so far this year, though, the risk of lethal cold presents itself at higher temperatures than 28 degrees, which has driven advocates like Pungarcher to push for a higher threshold. The shelter previously opened at 25 degrees, and it was recently formally requested of MHID that the temperature requirement be raised again to 32. Pungarcher said that a homeless individual had recently died of hypothermia downtown on a night not considered cold enough for the shelter to open.

“Monday night, when that person passed away, that was a night when the cold weather shelter wasn't open, I think the low was 31 that night,” Pungarcher said. “And so someone did pass away and die in that cold weather. I think it's very difficult to sit with, ‘what if that person could still be alive?’” Servais said the proposed change was being taken under advisement, but that resources would have to be assessed to ensure it was within budget constraints.

“It's not just as easy as saying ‘OK, let's move to 32,’” Servais said. “Can we afford that in the budget? Can we provide logistically what that entails?”

Vicky Batcher, a member of Continuum of Care’s Homelessness Planning Council and vendor for The Contributor who has been helping WeGo mobilize people toward the overflow shelter, agreed the change would be a boon to those unsheltered from the cold.

“It needs to be raised,” said Batcher, who was formerly homeless. In the interim, Batcher and Pungarcher recommend that people donate spare warm clothes and blankets or be willing to provide them to those in need, as well as communicating to anyone experiencing homelessness that the overflow shelter is open when it opens. “Just love the homeless and help them,” Batcher said. “Help them all you can.”