Learn More About
Column

Learn More About Rural Homelessness

By |

Cheatham County is participating in the outdoor homelessness count for the first time this year, and as I worked with a team to administer it, it occurred to me how many states and cities, including Tennessee and Nashville, still underestimate the impact of rural homelessness on urban centers. A lack of affordable housing and a lack of income are the main causes for people losing their housing. This fact is true for urban as well as rural communities. Yet, homelessness often is hidden in rural areas where people tend to live in dilapidated housing with a combination of holes in roofs, walls or floors, no running water or no electricity. People also stay in abandoned homes, in campers, in cars or deeply hidden in wooded areas.