'Peace of mind and stress off my heart': How Jackson is addressing homelessness in winter

Until two weeks ago, Krystle Terry was one of those unhoused individuals wondering how she would keep herself and her two children warm as winter steadily approached. After courageously deciding to leave a domestic violence-charged relationship, she found herself on the streets of Mason, Tennessee with her eight and 11-year-old children.

"I chose to leave everything. I had a car. I had a home. I had nice things, but I wanted me and my children to have a life rather than to have those things," Terry said.

"There was many nights where I wanted to go back, but God kept telling me there's something somewhere that's going to help you."

The Terrys experienced a five-week-long spell of being without stable shelter. Bouncing between houses and being on the street, her children's school attendance was hindered by their lack of a secure address.

'My heart is just so full': Dream Center reopens its doors, sheltering women and children

"I was panhandling and getting people to help me with money to take care of my children," she said. "We were in the cold for a couple of days I hate to say it, that makes me feel like a bad mom but that's what was going on. I was panhandling enough money for us to stay [in a hotel] for a night or two then we were back in the cold again."

In the absence of such worry, she is now benefitting from the services and shelter of the Dream Center in Jackson and praises the help of its Executive Director Gail Gustafson.

"Me and my kids were in the cold, didn't have a place to go, and she was nice enough to take me and my babies in," Terry said. "I left everything. We came in here carrying everything on our backs and Miss Gail took us in,"

Terry recalled the haunting thought of not knowing where to turn.

"'It's getting cold' is all I could think about, trying to keep my children warm and fed, not even really thinking about myself, just with my children, and it being cold outside, like where would I go," she said.

As temperatures continue to drop amid the commencement of winter, other local organizations are helping Jackson's unhoused population stay sheltered and warm.

Expanding options

In December 2020 when a member of Jackson's unhoused population lost his life in an ice storm, concerted efforts about how the city could expand its shelters and services promptly began.

A project three years in the making since the tragedy, the city broke ground on a men's homeless shelter on April 19.

Jackson: First homeless shelter for men breaks ground in Jackson

"We were looking at the same time in 2019 of how do we start exploring this opportunity, and then it really expedited in a tragic situation in 2020 when one of our citizens froze to death next to the Civic Center," said Jackson Mayor Scott Conger after the groundbreaking.

Located on McCorry Street and centrally located near other local homeless resources, it will be the first shelter exclusively for men that Jackson has had in 25 years. The project is a multi-entity collaboration between Jackson Housing Authority, Tennessee Homeless Solutions', Jackson City Council, Housing and Urban Development, Henson Construction Services, TLM Associates and the Greater Jackson Chamber.

More: Jackson receives $1.6 million federal grant to help tackle homelessness

At the groundbreaking, Conger commended council members and a number of organizations for their initiative in recognizing the need for a new shelter and prioritizing quality of life for Jacksonians.

"The importance of this homeless shelter is giving people an opportunity," he said.

"The goal is 30 to 45, but up to 90 days to provide that transitional opportunity and give people that foundation so they can move out from homelessness into a home."

Construction is scheduled to begin in spring and expected to be fully operational by next winter, housing between 16 and 20 men with plans to expand capacity when COVID-19 restrictions ease.

In the week following the groundbreaking, Jackson received $1,666,357 in federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for addressing unsheltered homelessness as part of the Continuum of Care (CoC) initiative.

At the presentation of the check, Tennessee Homeless Solutions Executive Director Amy McDonald detailed that a little over $1 million will be used by THS to offer support services for those, who will reside in the new homeless shelter.

Where to go in winter

The Dream Center opened its door at a new location on Nov. 2 and Gustafson says she currently serves 46 women and children, offering "just about anything that's going to help you become physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and financially stable."

When asked what living at the Dream Center has provided her, Terry's answer was simple.

"Peace of mind and stress off my heart, especially for my children because my children worry when I worry, and I don't want that on anybody," Terry said.

In years past, Gustafson explained that the number of women she served consistently spiked during the colder months, stating that "there's always a big increase in the winter."

Yearly conversations of encouraging coat donations to keep residents warm are one of the ways the Dream Center prepares to serve residents in the winter.

"We've got to make sure we've got shoes and coats because people come in sometimes with just a Walmart bag, or they still got summer clothes," Gustafson said.

Other organizations, nonprofits, and churches in Jackson also offer options for the unhoused year-round.

In partnership with local churches, Area Relief Ministries offers the "Room in the Inn" program in which unhoused individuals are guaranteed a safe night's sleep at one of the 25 participating churches.

ARM's day center at 108 South Church Street in downtown operates year-round providing resources like case management, chapel services and job training. In what McKinnie described as a "low-demand" center, participants are encouraged to sign in and out for safety purposes but are otherwise free to come and go as they please.

ARM Executive Director Fred McKinnie says that programs like Room in the Inn provide essential shelter and security for those who would otherwise be left to wonder where they'd sleep that night. In its 17th year, Room in the Inn operates from Nov. 1 through April 30 and services between 20 and 25 men nightly.

He added that ARM helps its highest volume of participants between the end of November and through February.

Those enrolled in the program check out a cot and sleeping bag from the ARM office to be returned the following morning and are then transported to church facilities where they have access to food, showers and medical care.

"You have a consistent group, but we have new people coming in every day," McKinnie said.

McKinnie noted that the number of participating churches is half of what it was five years ago and encourages more to get involved.

"Our main thing is churches determine how many men we can take a night, so really our plea is for more churches and volunteers because more churches and volunteers mean more men we could serve," McKinnie said. "Our goal is to not turn away anyone."

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: How Jackson officials, nonprofits are addressing homelessness