Homelessness

I think most of us want to be generous, especially as Christians. We want to give more than we take and bless others with what we have to share. The problem comes when we worry about not having enough to take care of ourselves. What if we give away too much? What if we don’t…

When people think about helping the homeless, their minds typically go straight to meeting physical needs: food, shelter, coats, hygiene items, etc. While those things are certainly crucial for our homeless friends, and those needs are always there, we often discount the value of lifting peoples’ spirits. Much less time is spent thinking about how…

In the latest episode of Real Hope with Glenn Cranfield, I had the opportunity to talk with Mike and Linda Curb on their advocacy and work in the homeless community. When I asked Mike what got him interested in helping the homeless specifically, he mentioned his love of his city of Nashville and that he…

Most people know that substance abuse is a significant issue among the homeless community, but it’s not always understood why. Compassion is even less common for the homeless who struggle with addiction. It’s easy to write off a homeless person who is clearly struggling with addiction because we see these issues as “wrong,” but if…

You might have noticed during the holiday season the campaigns for support and volunteers by nonprofits and other service initiatives tend to ramp up. Certainly there are many reasons nonprofits accelerate their fundraising and volunteer recruiting during the holiday season, but it’s not just because people are more inclined to be generous during November and…

At the Mission, we believe every person should have what they need to thrive — not just survive. To us, that means going beyond meeting physical needs to help people truly move forward in their lives and find stability and fulfillment. In a recent interview with John Ashman of Citygate Network on the Real Hope…

Everywhere you look, you can see the effect of the coronavirus pandemic. Many schools have gone remote, businesses have had to change their business models and, as of this writing, there have been over 200k deaths. It’s been a long battle against this disease and even now we are still trying to figure out how…

To be direct, no, there is not. The word “most” implies that the majority of people experiencing homelessness have some kind of substance abuse problem, which statistically is not the case. Having said that, it would be dishonest to say it’s not a problem.   It shouldn’t be a surprise that the homeless community’s substance abuse…

With homeless shelters available all across the country, it’s fair to wonder why someone might choose to sleep outside, on the street, or in a tent. However, this seemingly obvious choice has a lot more to it than most people realize.  Some homeless shelters are dangerous Unfortunately, some shelters have developed a bad reputation among…

While this question hasn’t come up as much lately because of the pandemic, it is one I frequently hear: “Why doesn’t that homeless person just go and get a job?” Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions around homelessness and employment, which can influence how people treat them. Let’s start with the most obvious problem: someone who…