Shelters Push Capacity as Winter Weather Looms

“The worst is the wet cold,” Kim tells the Scene. The 65-year-old is toting three bags of clothes, books and blankets just outside Room In The Inn’s Drexel Street campus. “I remember when it got really cold on Sept. 30. It was just freezing. I don’t think I slept for 10 nights.” 

Kim hasn’t had permanent housing since April. Originally from Clarksville, she had been living alone, renting near Ashland City, when a mental health crisis led to an extended hospital stay. That led to a stint at the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Donelson. She’s spent most nights since April at the Nashville Rescue Mission, which is where she’s planning to sleep the night we speak. She would not have been captured by 2023’s point-in-time count collected on a single day in January, which tallied 2,129 people experiencing homelessness in Nashville — an 11 percent increase from 2022.

Kim declined to give her last name because she has family and friends in the area. She’s now living on fixed retirement income, accrued from decades as a special education teacher. She’s saving for a car — the first step in her plan to get back into permanent housing. If she’s out of options, and the cold is too bitter, she’ll spend $75 on a motel room on Dickerson Pike. 

As we speak, dozens of people pass by, navigating the well-traveled two blocks between Room In The Inn and the Nashville Rescue Mission. Small groups chat as they walk. Some greet Kim, and others sing.

“I never want to live alone again,” she says. “I want to live in community. I’ve met really great friends here. And I’ve always wanted to live in Nashville. Now I do.”

Many people who sleep outside talk about Room In The Inn as their preferred way to find daily necessities, a warm meal and a bed at night. But its capacity is limited and often unpredictable, and recently, it’s focused mainly on housing men. From Nov. 1 to March 31, the nonprofit coordinates with participating faith congregations every night to get people off the street. Its daily bed total — the cumulative number of available spots across all congregations on a given night — still lags behind pre-COVID numbers. 

“The times when we aren’t totally full, it’s because our totals fluctuate so much,” says Melanie Ober, the organization’s community development director. “On a Thursday night, there may be 100 beds, and then on Friday night, there’s 300 beds. People have to make their arrangements early, so we just try to be very transparent with our community about our counts so they know how to plan.” 

Two blocks away, Christian shelter the Nashville Rescue Mission provides the bulk of the city’s bed space. Widely known simply as “The Mission,” the site can offer a stable, consistent stay for weeks or months at a time. It has earned a reputation for its disciplinary system, which can result in sudden bans or suspensions, and limited shower and bathroom space. An expansive new dedicated women’s campus is slated to open soon on Rosa Parks Boulevard.

Temperatures at or below freezing for three consecutive hours trigger Metro’s cold weather plan. Text alerts go out, buses offer free service from WeGo Central, and employees at Metro Social Services prepare to staff the city’s Extreme Cold Weather Overflow Shelter overnight. So far in 2023, this happened during a three-day cold spell starting Oct. 30, when the shelter took in 501 people over three days. Now operating for the second year in a former school on Brick Church Pike, the site opened a couple dozen times in 2022. Once or twice, when the shelter was understaffed, the city tapped the Salvation Army to open an additional overflow shelter. The long-term plan is to contract out the city’s shelter capacity. 

“I feel confident that we’ve got a near-term solution,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell told reporters in mid-November. “I think the ideal scenario is to get to a [request for proposals] that is fulfilled by a provider that does this regularly.” 

Will Compton, an outreach coordinator for local nonprofit Open Table, canvasses people who live outside as the weather gets cold.

“People settle in more in the winter, just because they want to be able to get under covers and just stay as warm as possible,” says Compton. “There is definitely heightened anxiety and a sort of desperation.”

Many people Compton encounters know their shelter options and choose to stay outside. “Rough sleeping,” as it’s known, is more dangerous, but some prefer a familiar environment where couples can stay together and pets and belongings can be close by. Hand warmers, gloves, water, snacks and restaurant gift cards, which provide both food and access to indoor space, can all help, according to Compton. 

“Even in theory, if we had enough beds to shelter every single person that’s currently experiencing homelessness in Nashville, people are just going to continue to flow into homelessness until we have more permanent housing,” says India Pungarcher, Open Table’s advocacy and outreach director. “Homelessness is increasing, and we are still so far away from having the net gain in housing that’s accessible to our friends experiencing homelessness right now. We truly need thousands of units yesterday.”