NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) — Johnny Templin is camped out once again outside the Jessamine County Public Library. He’s got some reading material, blankets, coats, a shack with no heat, no insulation, and unsealed windows and cracks. Here, is where he has been living for two nights and will continue to do so for four more.
“Last night was colder than the entire week last year. Inside the room we stayed at about 24 degrees all evening long,” Templin said.
Templin doesn’t care how cold it gets, or how much discomfort he’s forced to endure over these six days and nights, because he did this last year, and it helped his cause.
“Almost 60 percent more from 2020 to 2021 last year,” he explained of the extra roughly $13,000 in donations he was able to generate last year for the Center for Growth and Hope.
Johnny runs the center, and his mission there is to help shelter as many homeless people in need, and to help them get back on their feet at the appropriate time.
“We’ve serviced about 1,600 people in six years and we have a success rate of people who leave our program, willingly or not, that walk away with housing and income,” he said.
Templin makes sure to remind anyone who’ll listen that the homelessness problem in America and here in Kentucky isn’t relegated to the big cities. Nicholasville has its issues in this regard too.
Our community has about 48 people who are chronically homeless, sleeping outside, and if you look into the school system there’s about 400 children in the homeless educational program that are identified as at-risk or in homelessness right now,” he detailed, before adding that the issue is a big one in this town.
It’s so big, he’s decided to live outside for nearly one week in hopes of bringing attention to his shack and his reason for living here for the week.
If you’d like to help Johnny in his quest to help others in need this holiday season, click here: Growth And Hope | Jessamine County Homeless Coalition | Nicholasville
