Hendersonville Standard
HENDERSONVILLE WEATHER

Stay Warm Shelter offers refuge for homeless




Stan Wilson with the Hendersonville Church of Christ helps pack meals that were delivered to the local homeless population on Friday and Saturday. JOSH CROSS

Stan Wilson with the Hendersonville Church of Christ helps pack meals that were delivered to the local homeless population on Friday and Saturday. JOSH CROSS

As Deborah Alston drives around delivering more than 100 meals each week to those who are homeless in the area, she worries about what she could find.

So far this month, temperatures have fallen to below freezing most nights forcing anyone still outside to battle the bitter cold.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if at some point it got cold enough and we found someone frozen to death because they had nowhere to go,” Alston said. “That’s my biggest fear and that it would be someone I know.”

Alston, who serves as an associate minister at First Baptist Church on East Winchester Street in Gallatin, started the Stay Warm Shelter five years ago for anyone who is homeless in Sumner County to come during the winter.

The shelter, which is located at 290 E. Winchester St. in the church’s gym, is open every Friday night in January and February from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. Saturday.

“We probably have about 125 homeless living in Gallatin,” Alston said. “They are just everywhere. You’ll pass by somebody who is homeless, and you won’t even know it. They’re not alcoholics or on drugs, they’ve just lost their homes and their jobs and everything because of Covid.”

Kenneth Bald with the Hendersonville Church of Christ makes one of the beds at the Stay Warm Shelter in Gallatin on Friday, Jan. 8. JOSH CROSS

Kenneth Bald with the Hendersonville Church of Christ makes one of the beds at the Stay Warm Shelter in Gallatin on Friday, Jan. 8. JOSH CROSS

In addition to providing beds and a warm place to stay, the shelter also provides meals each week to those who are homeless.

This year, Alston said volunteers from seven area churches are helping prepare the food as well learning more about how to operate a shelter should they choose to open their own during a different night of the week.

“When you look in the scripture and see the things we’re supposed to be doing as churches, it’s not about building our congregations… it’s about loving our neighbors and serving others,” said Bill Jacoby, an executive director at NorthField Church. “Probably the greatest needs you see are people who are in these kinds of situations.”

In addition to delivering meals and providing a place to stay during the winter, the Stay Warm Shelter distributes blankets, sleeping bags and tents as well as food and water to the homeless during the summer.

The organization also helps pay for electric and water bills as well as hotel stays for those in need.

“We do a little bit of everything,” Alston said. “Even though we only house (homeless) during these two months, we stay busy the rest of the year.”

In addition to financial donations, Alston said the Stay Warm Shelter is most in need of help with vehicle maintenance for a van that is used to deliver meals to those in need each week.

She also hopes the organization will be able to get its own dedicated building, which would allow volunteers to open up a shelter every night during the winter and possibly a soup kitchen during the day.

“It’s just a bad situation and we’ve just been praying that the city will do something,” Alston said. “It’s life and death. That’s what we try to get them to understand.”

For more information about the Stay Warm Shelter, including how to make a donation, visit Stay Warm Shelter of Gallatin on Facebook or contact First Baptist Church on Winchester Street at (615) 452-8189 or the Stay Warm Shelter at (615) 479-7784.


Stay Warm Shelter Pickup Times and Locations

Walmart by the garden center: 9:20 p.m.

Waffle House: 9:35 p.m.

Gallatin Public Library (out front): 9:50 p.m.

*The shelter is open every Friday night through February in the gym of the First Baptist Church Life Center at 290 E. Winchester St. in Gallatin from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. Saturday.

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