During his campaign, Mayor Freddie O’Connell focused heavily on transit and made it clear that he believes, “better transit options will make Nashville more affordable.” He pledged that “on day one as Mayor, I will immediately take steps toward building a Frequent Transit Network — one that brings transit closer to communities, extends hours and frequencies, and introduces more technology.”
O’Connell’s focus on public transit as part of addressing affordability issues in Nashville is spot on. Without access to reliable transportation, people have a hard time escaping poverty. Transportation is essential to access stable employment, health care, child care, education, etc.
When examining the average household expenses in 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics listed transportation as the second largest expense right behind housing costs. No wonder then, that we see reports and studies cite the lack of transportation as a contributor to homelessness. Studies have shown that public transit and walking are the most common means of transportation for people experiencing homelessness. Most people relied on social service providers to help them pay for transit.
In recent years, many nonprofits serving people experiencing homelessness have created Uber or Lyft accounts to help fill in the transportation gaps to help ensure people get to appointments on time. But nonprofits are only able to use these services sporadically due to the high cost. Bus passes are another option used by nonprofits. Usually, they hand out day passes for clients to see a doctor, a mental health provider, or to get to a government office to access diverse needs such as getting food stamps, ID replacements, birth certificates, etc., or simply to get to a shelter.
The city’s focus on improving public transit, including bus services, is vital to decrease poverty rates and homelessness. But these transit services must be accessible and convenient for everyone.
To streamline its services and increase efficiency at boarding, WeGo has meanwhile fully implemented its QuickTickets, which are reloadable plastic cards or can be accessed through a phone app. Since Oct. 1 bus riders are required to use their QuickTickets or have the exact change ready. Fares remained the same through this change. But I encourage you to read Jen A.’s article (on Pg. 7) to give you a full perspective of how any changes to public transit impacts people differently.
In some areas of the country, public transit providers believe that the presence of people experiencing homelessness impacts their ridership. A review of literature conducted in 2019 did not find clear evidence of the extent of impact homelessness has on public transit.
Eric Melcher, WeGo’s public information officer, told me that WeGo takes a collaborative approach when it comes to addressing homelessness and is in close contact with the Office of Homeless Services, the Mayor’s Office and other Metro departments to coordinate around needs for people experiencing homelessness.
I personally can attest to WeGo’s collaborative spirit over the past years. Actually, since Steve Bland became CEO of WeGo, Metro implemented several programs over the years that have continually been improved, two of which I would like to highlight. One is the ongoing support of helping transport people to shelters when temperatures fall to or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Currently, when Metro runs its cold weather shelter, bus route 23B is free during the evening hours from WeGo Central in downtown to the shelter location on Brick Church Pike. In the mornings, Metro hands out free public transit rides for people who leave the shelter. That’s also when people experiencing homelessness may receive a QuickTicket card they can reload and use to use the bus system. For people who are unfamiliar with how to handle the QuickTicket system, WeGo Central has in-person customer service available.
Undoubtedly, some people experiencing homelessness use public transit systems to sleep, rest and get warm. And we have certainly seen people without housing bundled up in a Nashville bus shelter or at a bus stop to try to be a little protected from the elements. WeGo usually reaches out to the Office of Homeless Services and their outreach team to engage people and link them to services — another collaboration that has been in place for a few years.
In 2017, Metro’s Homeless Impact Division (back then it was still called the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission) in partnership with WeGo launched a pilot program that provided annual bus passes to people experiencing or at risk of chronic homelessness. The conditions of this partnership were that up to 500 annual bus passes would be provided to people who actively worked with a housing navigator, had a disabling condition, and had experienced homelessness for at least five months. Melcher said that program was still going on. Just to avoid that WeGo gets bombarded with calls from people who want to access any of these annual bus passes, let me state clearly that this program is managed by the Office of Homeless Services and bus passes are only available to partnering nonprofit organizations who then are able to offer them to eligible clients.
In my personal experience as the former director of the Metro Homeless Impact Division, WeGo has been a transparent community partner and has been open to suggestions. When I worked with them in the past, I observed quickly that WeGo never said “no” when I approached them with a request. On the contrary, under Bland’s leadership, the WeGo Team would take any suggestion into consideration and evaluate what was doable at the moment.
Overall, WeGo has taken a solutions-oriented approach. The organization understands that public transit plays a big role in the affordability conversation our city is engaged in and in addressing homelessness.
I think we all agree that much work still needs to be done. For a city the size of Nashville our public transit system is not up to date, and local public officials would likely agree with that statement. As with any approach, the special needs of marginalized populations are harder to accommodate, and we all need to speak up and remain vigilant to ensure that any transit improvements are considerate of everyone’s needs.
I am speaking of the mom who has to drop off her children at daycare prior to getting to her job at the other end of the city or the person living in the outskirts of Nashville who has to walk four miles to the next bus stop. And for folks for whom the current options create undue barriers to getting where they need to go. In short, if our transit system fails our neighbors who depend on it, I don’t think we will be able to tackle our homelessness crisis.