Local nonprofit VOCAL-KY opened a drop-in center in February this year at its Old Louisville location. It’s a grassroots advocacy nonprofit dedicated to ending mass incarceration, homelessness and the AIDS epidemic.
Since then, the center has seen many unhoused people find refuge at the drop-in center — averaging 80 people every day, said Jennifer Twyman, organizer at VOCAL-KY.
“Our couches are a hot commodity because it’s somewhere to lay down for the four hours that we’re open and sleep, because out there, it’s too dangerous to sleep,” she said.
Twyman said she’s grateful to be able to support people experiencing homelessness and provide them resources, especially during rainstorms, tornado warnings and other unexpected weather events. But their headquarters isn’t technically a shelter.
“We have a pretty big space for a drop-in center. We could have people sleep in here at night, but we don’t have the staffing capacity to make that happen, like during emergency situations. We don’t even have staffing capacity to be open five days a week at this point in time,” she said.