GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF — After several early-season freezing days, a Sumner County shelter said the cold has exposed a growing crisis for people with no safe place to stay.

Deborah Alston, founder of the Stay Warm Shelter in Gallatin, went before the Gallatin City Council last week asking for help and to explain their situation. She said the shelter and its warming center are reaching a breaking point.

Alston and her husband launched the shelter 11 years ago to give people experiencing homelessness a place to go whenever temperatures drop below 32 degrees. The operation relies on six staff members in January and February, but for the rest of the year it is only the couple and whatever volunteers they can find.

When a cold snap hit this week, the warming center couldn’t open.

“I put some

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