Homeless Population Visible In Summer

The Director of the Cookeville Rescue Mission said it is common for more of the homeless population to take to the street in the summer.

Bruce Bailey said the increased visibility of homeless persons has a lot to do with the season. He said the feeling of freedom appeals to the population.

“I don’t know what they have,” Bailey said. “It’s a makeshift tent or some kind of camp out in the woods. It’s kind of that false life of free-and-easy and not accountable to anybody, and they prefer that in the nice weather.”

Bailey said the Rescue Mission has done well with taking precautions to prevent the spread of COVID. To date, he said the shelter has had no confirmed cases of the virus.

“We have not had anyone infected with the COVID-19 virus,” Bailey said. “We had one gentleman about a month or month-and-a-half ago who came to the mission and said he was positive for the virus. He was tested and did come back in eventually, and he was evidently was not.”

A number of precautions are in place to protect the mission’s population, Bailey said. So far, they seem to be working.

“Our family lodge where we house women and children was not accepting new people,” Bailey said. “The space there is very limited, and if someone came in with the virus, they could quickly infect everyone just because of the configuration of that space.”

“In the men’s shelter, we have a different setup,” Bailey said. “We have a new facility that we acquired that is going to eventually become the main facility for the Rescue Mission. We are taking new men into that facility and separating them by distance and requiring masks to be worn.”

Bailey said despite a small decrease earlier this year, the Mission’s population numbers have been steady. He did say, however, he believes the homeless population in Cookeville is increasing.

“I think the population is increasing,” Bailey said. “I drive by on Jefferson under I-40 every day coming to the office, and I know the people who are standing out there. They have been in the shelter, and they choose just not to be here.”

Bailey said as the weather begins to change this fall, he believes people will begin returning to the Rescue Mission.