"Please don't think badly about a homeless person, like I used to do. Cause now I'm one of them," says Yvonne Baker.
Yvonne Baker is one of about 1-hundred people who stay at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen nightly.
Baker had a good job, a nice home, but because of a physical disability now has to sleep on a mat on the floor.
"This is hard, very hard," Baker cries.
The Kitchen houses many different people, women, men, children, and families.
But, like Baker, everyone's needs are different.
"You can be homeless staying in a shelter or homeless staying with friends, but now we're seeing people homeless who would otherwise be on the street," says Jens Christensen.
The Chattanooga Community Kitchen opened as an emergency shelter in November, the number of those coming to stay as decreased but the number of families has increased.
"Yeah, we've dealt with about one family a night since we opened and we opened November first," says Christensen.
For volunteer, Josh Haley, he sees families come through the door everyday.
The need for a home is something he is happy he can fulfill.
"There is a huge population out there that are in need of shelter and I'm glad we're able to provide it," says Haley.
Haley, who lives in a mission himself, says he's lived on both sides and understands the life of the homeless.
"They come in and they don't know what to do they just got threw out on the side of the interstate and they have no hope, and I'm able to give them that hope," he says.
Haley, is considered a friend among many at the shelter.
http://www.homelesschattanooga.org/
