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:
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.
Yes, it's terrible and we have a lot of them in big cities here, too, for example around the Cathedral.
I see homeless people on every visit to Stockholm. Very sad.
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.
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.
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