Following a flurry of social media activity about how to help the homeless during cold months, the Barren County Detention Center in Glasgow has opened its lobby to people who need a place to sleep.

Mandy Goessling, who started a Facebook group called Shelter Barren County, said weather conditions in late December inspired her to do something for homeless people who might be struggling in the cold.

“I just couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be homeless in this weather,” she said.

On the Facebook page, the group is described as “Members of the Barren County community … trying to come together/organize to help the homeless and underserved in Glasgow during this bitter cold.”

Since the group’s inception Dec. 30, it has grown to more than 500 members.

“It started catching on pretty quick,” Goessling said, adding that the group has been trying to find churches interested in helping, as well as collecting coats, hats, sleeping bags and other donated items for the homeless in the community.

Barren County Judge-Executive Micheal Hale was one among those who took notice of the group. As he read people’s concerns about homeless people in Barren County – which does not have a homeless shelter – he wondered about the possibility of opening rooms in the jail, located at 107 Ford Drive, that are used for visits by family members and counselors, he said.

Hale said he called Barren County Jailer Tracy Bellamy, who advised against taking homeless people into rooms regularly used by inmates but agreed to open the lobby – a decision that satisfied Hale.

“It’s a good size, it has restrooms and it has heat so it’s a good fit,” he said.

Bellamy said he can lodge up to 10 people in the jail’s lobby per night and will keep the lobby open for as long as it’s needed.

Anyone wishing to sleep in the lobby is provided with clean sleeping mats and a meal if they’re hungry, Bellamy said.

“We won’t turn nobody down if they’re cold and have nowhere else to go,” he said. “I know it’s not the best of accommodations, but it’s what we can offer.”

Ricky Wooten, a member of Shelter Barren County, announced Dec. 30, the day the group was founded, that Bellamy had agreed to provide shelter in the jail’s lobby.

Since then, Bellamy said turnout has been fairly low, with an average of one person sleeping in the lobby per night.

So far, he said, there have not been any issues.

“A lot of us take for granted a shelter over our head and it’s sad that people are coming to us with no other option,” he said.

Sonya Hamrick, a team member of Barren River Refuge, a nonprofit group working to establish a homeless shelter in Barren County, said the recent interest in helping might not translate into a great deal of action. For Facebook groups like Shelter Barren County, Hamrick said, only a handful of members are typically willing to actively work toward a solution.

Hamrick reached out to Goessling on Dec. 30 and said Shelter Barren County might be collaborating with Barren River Refuge to bring a shelter to the county in the future.

“A lot of people want to take credit for small things, but we should all come together for this one big thing,” she said.