Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Homeless in Nashville


Whether we, as Americans, want to face it or not, homelessness is a problem in this country. A 2006 report places the number of homeless in the US at 744,000, and the fastest-growing segment of homeless are children and families. Nashville is no exception, and the morning I shot this photo, there were about 15 men and women sitting or sleeping under a pedestrian bridge south of downtown.

Nashville has joined with 170 other cities nationwide to tackle this problem. In 2004, our current mayor established a task force dedicated to eradicating homelessness in our city. The plan is to offer better health care, housing and job-training options to the homeless, as well as better cooperation between social and non-profit agencies that currently serve the homeless population. With help from both state and federal programs aimed at fighting homelessness, the task force wants to eliminate homelessness by 2015.

5 comments:

FĂ©nix - Bostonscapes said...

It sounds like a good plan, I really hope it works out. It's just so heartbreaking to see people in such horrible situation in this country. It shouldn't happen, not with CEOs making hundreds of millions a year.

Good post, Chris.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's terrible and we have a lot of them in big cities here, too, for example around the Cathedral.

Stefan Jansson said...

I see homeless people on every visit to Stockholm. Very sad.

Carlos Lorenzo said...

Let's see what happens by then. At least there is some plan. Lucky you won't have Mr. Bush. I checked your link in my dropdown menu. Sorry about that.

Ann (MobayDP) said...

I sure hope this works and provides a model for eliminating homelessness across the world.

It is a sad thing to see someone living like this when so many others do not appreciate the roof over their head.