Goodwill, Hope Village providing homeless place to stay as temperatures remain bitterly cold

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Homeless advocates in Louisville are working to get people off the streets while freezing temperatures linger across the state.

The city of Louisville has two white flag shelters, which allow people to come inside, warm up, and stay for the night. Those include Wayside Christian Mission and the Salvation Army.

According to Nina Moseley with Wayside Christian Mission, its shelter typically houses around 300 people. With white flag in effect, she expects at least 100 additional people to show up each night looking for a warm place to stay. Kelly Hutchinson with the Salvation Army said its shelter has room for around 200 people and with white flag in place, that will create room for around 50 more.

Other groups are working together to create additional overnight shelter. Goodwill's Another Way program and the Hope Village partnered Monday to open an emergency pop-up shelter in Louisville's California neighborhood.

"Goodwill has offered us a heating shelter for tonight. I'm very excited to stay there and I'm looking forward to this new beginning and going another way," said Shakina Johnson, a woman planning to stay in the pop-up shelter.

Monday, Johnson volunteered with Goodwill's Another Way program by setting up tables and chairs at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The program helps connect people on the streets with job opportunities and outreach services by picking them up in vans and driving them to job sites.

"They work for about three and a half, four hours, we feed them lunch while they're out, we bring them back to Goodwill around 1:30, 2 o'clock, we give them a $50 Visa stipend, a four-hour bus pass, all the while connecting them to Goodwill programs and services," said Sharon Allgeier, program director for Another Way.

This time, those individuals are also given the opportunity to come back to the pop-up shelter on S. 16th Street at the Coleman Preparatory Academy.

"We go to the homeless camps, we pick people up on the corners, anybody that needs work. So we pick up the unhoused," said Allgeier.

Stachelle Bussey, executive director and founder of Louisville's Hope Village, said this type of shelter is needed in these bitterly cold temperatures.

"It's hard enough on the streets and if we could make their lives a little bit lighter for the next couple of days, that's what it's all about. And save a life. Save a life. This is about people," she said.

Johnson is originally from Las Vegas. She said she is a survivor of domestic violence and human trafficking, and had been sleeping in her car for weeks before being connected with Another Way.

"... it's gotten very cold," Johnson said.

She said she appreciated being able to work.

"I'm working for it because it makes it more valuable to me. It makes me have more purpose and knowing that it's not a hand out but a hand up. Knowing that each day I'm looking and I'm working hard for another way," she said.

The pop-up shelter officially opened at 4 p.m. Monday. Allgeier said she expected over the next few days for 100 to 150 people to stay there. She said it will remain open until temperatures warm back up.

"There are a lot of homeless right now in camps, in tents. A lot of them have no idea that the temperatures are dropping and freezing," Allgeier said.

Donations for the shelter can be dropped off at the Coleman Preparatory Academy at 1039 South 16th Street or at Goodwill's Metro Louisville Opportunity Center at 909 East Broadway. Needed items include blankets, hand warmers, coffee, hot chocolate, soda, water, pillows, hoodies, sweaters, coats, snacks, sandwich items, towels, rags, hygiene products, socks, coats, gloves, hats and t-shirts. Volunteers are also needed.

Wayside Christian Mission said its most needed donation is toilet paper.

The Hope Village's shelter and warming station is open daily at 4 p.m. at 212 E. College Street and 1039 S. 16th Street.

To learn more about Goodwill's Another Way program, click here. For more information about the Hope Village, click here.

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