Cookeville Weather Shelter In New Location

The Cookeville Community Cares Coalition is moving its shelter once again to better deal with this week’s cold weather.

Recovery Kitchen Co-Founder Justin Veals said the coalition setup at the United Church of Cookeville located on Gould Drive. Veals said moving to the church will provide shelter as long as the cold weather continues.

“It’s all set up for us,” Veals said. “We can get a few more beds here than we had at the community center initially and we are still looking for other spaces but we do have something secured.”

Veals said the new shelter location is currently open. Veals said the Cookeville Rescue Mission is also providing shelter services and believes the two combined could provide enough facilities for the ongoing cold snap.

Veals said having the shelter at the community center was a temporary agreement.

“We always knew it was going to be temporary,” Veals said. “We didn’t expect to be in it as long as we did because we didn’t think the weather was gonna last this long. You know, it was like we will be here for a week.”

Veals said the long stretch of cold weather has made operating the shelter challenging. Veals said a big need for the shelter is recovery specialist volunteers.

“We always want to make sure that we have some of our volunteers there so that when people from the public come in and volunteer they are not left to deal with any difficult situation that may arise on their own without someone there who is prepared to handle it,” Veals said. “Those situations are the exception and not the norm. It’s not like every day there is a crisis but if there is one we want to make sure we have the right people here to handle it.”

Veals said the coalition is looking at properties that they could possibly afford and renovate to have a permanent solution for years to come. Veals said if the coalition could acquire a property they could then focus on plugging people into additional resources.