Needed Items
The Salvation Army is requesting donations of money and certain items to protect and assist the area’s needy people as cold weather strikes. The following items are needed:Toiletry items (hotel sizes are best)CoatsGlovesCoffeeSnack cakesNew space heaters (for low-income residents)
Eighteen deaths occurred in Tennessee last year from people sleeping out in the cold.
One of them, 63-year-old Douglas King, died while sleeping outside near a railroad track on 11th Street in Chattanooga.
With below-freezing temperatures expected this weekend, the Salvation Army is opening the doors of its cold-weather shelter to help.
"We opened because the [Chattanooga Community] Kitchen is not open. There's no other place operating a cold-weather shelter that can accommodate the homeless when it's below freezing," said Kimberly George, the Salvation Army's director of marketing and communication. The Salvation Army's emergency shelter will operate from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. today through Monday.
The Community Kitchen donated mats for the Salvation Army shelter, and the Salvation Army is seeking cots. The shelter can hold up to 80 men, women and children, George said.
The kitchen doesn't open its cold weather shelter until Dec. 14. It will remain open for the next three months, Executive Director Jens Christensen said.
Relevant Hope, a local ministry targeting homeless people, will staff the kitchen's emergency shelter with financial support from the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition.
The coalition counted more than 600 people homeless in Chattanooga and surrounding counties during the 2015 Point in Time homeless count.
Forecasters anticipate temperatures to drop today from a high of 59 degrees to 33 degrees, according to WRCBtv.com. On Sunday, temperatures drop again from a high of 46 degrees to 27 degrees, about 15 degrees below normal, according to the website.
George said the Salvation Army doesn't have funding for an emergency shelter, and is asking the public to support it by donating money and toiletries.
"We have to sometimes operate in faith that God will supply our need," she said.
Timothy Newson, 38, said he's grateful for the Salvation Army's assistance.
He said he's been sleeping on bus stop benches for the past month while hoping for a meat packaging job at the chicken house.
"We need somewhere to sleep," he said.
Allen Beck, 51, said he's been homeless for a month after being recently released from jail.
"They supply a lot of needs," he said of the Salvation Army. "Without them, people would wind up dead."
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yput man@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.