Homelessness

“We need more housing in our city!” That’s an argument you’ll often hear when debating how to impact homelessness in the community. But what if you could reduce homelessness without adding more housing? While adding housing can help, there are other ways to make a lasting impact in reducing homeless populations in your city. Recently…

Homelessness impacts people in communities across our country. Although resources and methods to provide housing are consistently growing and providing better comprehensive care, it’s difficult to meet people’s needs unless we can accurately measure the scope of homelessness in a community. However, measuring homelessness can be difficult due to the lack of a clear definition…

Wouldn’t it be great if there was one solution that could solve everything? In today’s culture, we tend to seek out quick fixes and one-size-fits-all approaches to address our problems in the spirit of efficiency and practicality. Nowhere do we see this more prominently than the issue of homelessness across the United States.  Homelessness is…

No matter what city you either live in or visit, there’s a good chance it has a homeless population. The issue of homelessness continues to grow across the United States, especially in recent years with the global COVID-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 580,466 people experienced homelessness in one…

Volunteering to help organizations that serve the homeless population is a wonderful way to give back to your community. And while help is certainly needed, it’s important to understand that many individuals who are experiencing homelessness have also experienced intense trauma that might impact the way they interact with you. Here are some basic ways…

Last month we hosted Becca Stevens, a speaker, social entrepreneur, author, priest, founder of non-profit justice initiatives and President of Thistle Farms. During our conversation, one of the topics we addressed was the role that trauma plays in homelessness. Trauma comes in many forms and, as Becca argued, the very experience of homelessness is traumatic,…

A look at the history of homelessness with Nashville Rescue Mission CEO, Glenn Cranfield. Homelessness is one of the everyday things that people in our culture today can easily shrug off as an unavoidable issue. When the topic comes up, eyes glaze over and people tune out. The homeless are the unfortunates who “will always…

The holiday season is a festive time full of warmth, fond memories, and joy with family and friends. It’s also a time when people are generally kinder to others. It’s a season of giving beyond simply placing presents under a tree. This giving spirit is rooted in the history of Christmas, sung in Christmas carols,…

When you see a person holding a cardboard sign on the street corner or huddled under a blanket on a bench, it’s easy to slip into making assumptions. Oftentimes we don’t even realize we’re doing it, but we might find ourselves immediately feeling uncomfortable. Perhaps we avert our eyes or avoid crossing the street just…