Director Jens Christensen shows off the atrium of Chattanooga Community Kitchen’s new family shelter, scheduled to open this winter, as construction continues on Friday.
Designed to be a short-term emergency shelter, the Maclellan Shelter for Families will serve as the first stop for families (with children) finding themselves in a sudden situation of homelessness.
Designed to be a short-term emergency shelter, the Maclellan Shelter for Families will serve as the first stop for families (with children) finding themselves in a sudden situation of homelessness. The shelter is not a destination, but instead serves as a starting point toward permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
If all goes as planned, Chattanooga’s first emergency family shelter for men, women and children will open in mid-December.
“It should be a place that on the very night a family becomes homeless, they would come to the shelter,” said Jens Christensen, executive director of the Chattanooga Community Kitchen.
The number of homeless families in the 10-county region around Chattanooga has more than tripled since 2010 – from 27 to 73 this year, according to the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition. Those families comprised 198 children and adults.
Families account for one-third of the nation’s homeless population, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness. Not since the Great Depression have so many families been without homes.
A desire to provide an emergency shelter where children could remain with their families prompted the Maclellan Foundation to provide $600,000 for the facility. Research done in late 2012 on Hamilton County’s homeless population also “identified a pressing need for additional shelter services designed to meet the unique challenges faced by homeless families,” Maclellan Executive Director David Denmark said.