It’s incredibly stressful to be an unhoused person in Nashville. With housing, food and hygiene needs hanging in the balance, a fleet of homeless service providers seeks to stand in the gap. This year, nonprofit Colby’s Army and their peers faced flak from Metro Parks, who at one point kicked them out of Richland Park for serving food and handing out hygiene supplies to people experiencing homelessness there, saying the group would need a permit in the future. Similar action at other parks and with other groups followed.
It can also be quite stressful to take care of the people experiencing homelessness in our city. It takes a lot of time and patience to begin to chip away at the long list of steps it takes to get a person living on the streets into affordable housing. Providers don’t need any additional barriers to the difficult work they do. A common saying in the nonprofit world: “Meet people where they are.” These folks do just that.
While the outreach groups eventually obtained the permits after jumping through some hoops, it took weeks — time and resources that could have been devoted to helping those same people have a place to live. Thank you to these groups for advocating for the unhoused people of Nashville, and reminding us that parks are for everyone.
— Hannah Herner
Reporter, Nashville Scene and Nashville Post
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