Now that public programs are being gutted, it is time for Nashville’s churches to step up. Speaking from lived experience, I can tell you that having a place to sleep in the church for one night and to look for where the next church respite will be the next night is exhausting and not terribly helpful.
So. Here’s the plan:
Green Street Church of Christ has a working model of 16 micro-homes and a couple of campsites that has been operating as a city-authorized sanctuary for the homeless.
The church has spent 15 years working with the homeless. Their micro homes are 6’ x 12’ with access to shared laundry and bathrooms, available on a schedule. In 2020, Lipscomb engineering students added solar panels to power fans, phones and a lamp in each micro house.
According to some sources, there are only about 3,500 homeless people in Nashville. (The actual number is higher, as it doesn’t count people who are doubling up, staying in a hotel, in an isolated spot or sleeping in their boss’s office, for instance.) There are over 2,300 churches in the greater Nashville area. If each church took on one and a half homeless people for a year or two, while helping them find permanent housing and hooking them up with case workers, no one would be sleeping on the street.
This was true 15 years ago when Green Street Church of Christ started their mission. It is still true today. Green Street even has a blueprint for how to do it.
There is also a church in Madison that made some of their offices into 2 year lease apartments, where qualified homeless people can stay for free while they get on their feet.
Churches that don’t have outside space for buildings or a large enough church to house people inside could sign on for food drops, mobile laundry services, social service connections or helping people get their IDs and other paperwork.
Now that the Contributor and other orgs have created a unified resource base, this type of help also has a blueprint. The Downtown Presbyterian Church houses the full service Contributor offices, for instance.
SNAP benefits and Medicaid will be cut soon, so your church might want to start looking at accommodation for more than one or two homeless people. As people get behind on their bills, the number of people needing help will skyrocket.
Thank you for your consideration.