• nashville, tennessee mayoral

Issue 40July 2011 Profits Benefit

Our Vendors

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www.thecontributor.org • Nashville, Tennessee

BY ANDREW [email protected]

Beginning July 15th through July 30th, and concluding on August4th, Davidson County residents will have the opportunity to headto the polls to cast their votes for candidates running for the officesof mayor, vice mayor and Metro Council. With incumbent MayorKarl Dean facing few major opponents, public debates and dia-

logues will likely play a smaller role this election year than they did in 2007.But democracy doesn’t work without dialogue. Thus, the likeli-

hood of low voter turnout and incumbency aside, we use this issueof The Contributor, as we attempt to every month, for the pur-pose of broadening the conversation our city is accustomed tohaving about matters that concern our poorest neighbors. Inthis issue, we take the conversation to four people vying forthe office of mayor, asking them to articulate what powerful(and potentially powerful) people are seldom asked to articu-late: how, if (re)elected, they plan to concern themselves withour city’s most impoverished residents.

It is no secret that candidates for political office in our country donot get elected by advocating for poor and marginalized people. Evenif a politician campaigns on a platform that appeals to the interests of thosewho are poor, it is a unique political leader who advocates concretely and con-sistently for her most marginalized constituents from the day she is electeduntil the day she leaves office. It is for this reason that those who spend theirlives working on behalf of those who are poor and homeless often learn notto hold their breath for a government to end poverty or homelessness all onits own.

Which is not to say that a government doesn’t play a key role in the alle-viation of poverty. It does, and indeed, a democracy is not a democracy with-out citizens who keep leaders accountable to the needs of all a city’s residents.But just as much, if not more, a community is not a community without peo-ple who involve themselves in the lives of their neighbors. And whether thatneighbor lives in the house next door or beneath the highway overpass acrosstown, if you’ve purchased a copy of this newspaper, you’ve already begun, everso slightly, to bridge the gap. But that’s only a first step. We hope you’ll readthe interviews that follow to become more educated about what might comenext—for you, for your neighbor and for the city that we all share in common.

Mayor Karl DeanIncumbent Candidate for Mayor

Karl Dean was elected mayor of Nashville in 2007 and runs this year for a sec-ond term. On Friday, May 27th, The Contributor sat down with Mayor Deanin his campaign offices to discuss the state of homelessness and poverty inNashville, Tenn., including how he plans to address such issues if elected to an-

other four years in office.

The Contributor: The first question is in regards to housing. Inthe Poverty Reduction Initiative, which, if I’m correct, you werein charge of seeing into being…

Karl Dean: Right, we brought together a group—a big andpretty passionate group—to look at the issue of poverty, andout of that came a series of recommendations, and now ourpoverty group is working to try and implement some of those

recommendations…

TC: In that Reduction plan, as well as in the 10-Year Plan to End ChronicHomelessness, which came under Mayor Purcell…from my read of both ofthose, one of the fundamental elements understood to be integral to reducingor ending poverty and homelessness is housing—increasing the stock of afford-able housing. And as The Key Alliance and others talk about, without creatinghousing first, homelessness and poverty remain inevitable. Also, The Key Al-liance has some really interesting stats about the fact that housing a city’shomeless population ends up, in the long run, being more cost-effective thankeeping people homeless—basically through the jail and hospital costs, whichend up costing more than housing and wrap-around services would. So, withthose two different plans in mind, both of which the city has been holding in itshands for a couple of years now, where does the status of housing in Nashvillecurrently stand in relation to the goals that have been set, as far as you areaware?

[Continued on Page 4]

Candidate photographs at right, top to bottom: MayorKarl Dean, James Keeton, Bruce Casper, Marvin Barnes

P.O. Box 332023Nashville, Tn 37203

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PAIDFRANKLIN, TN

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Earlier this year, seven newspa-per vendors received citations forselling The Contributor on the side-walks of Brentwood, Tenn. Thesevendors received the citations undera local Brentwood ordinance thatprohibits the selling of any goods orservices on a Brentwood sidewalk.On March 17th, a Brentwood court

upheld the citations and, subse-quently, The Contributor appealedthe Brentwood court decision. As aresult, the local office of the ACLUwas flooded with calls asking theACLU to defend The Contributor andthe First Amendment in WilliamsonCounty.

“The City of Brentwood has cre-ated unconstitutional and repressiverestrictions that violate The Contrib-

utor’s First Amendment rights to sellits paper and share its message.ACLU-TN will vigorously defendthose rights,” said Tricia Herzfeld,ACLU-TN Legal Director. The Con-tributor is now represented in thismatter by ACLU Cooperating Attor-ney Irwin Venick and Tricia Herzfeld.


ACLU Defends The Contributor and First Amendment

Mayoral Candidate ConversationsBringing Poverty and Homelessness to the Office of Mayor

.NEWS.

The Contributor • July 2011 • Page 4

BY JOE [email protected]

While the entire country seems to havetaken sides in the ongoing battle about the futureof American healthcare, one underrepresentedgroup is especially vulnerable to the changeand/or lack of change that may be afoot: thehomeless community.

Most Americans think that everybody liv-ing in poverty is eligible for Medicaid, but this isnot the case. Poor adults who are disabled or areparents are most often eligible, but for adultswho don’t fall in these categories there may beno safety net available. A non-disabled, childlessadult—even with ongoing, chronic health con-cerns—will likely not find relief and assistancethrough Medicaid. Mothers who’ve lost theirchildren to foster care and adolescents who’veoutgrown the foster care system often also face atight squeeze between the rock-and-a-hard-place that poverty and lack of healthcare repre-sent. A nationwide study in 1996 found that onlya quarter of America’s homeless population wasenrolled in Medicaid.

Homelessness and healthcare are so inter-connected that it’s nearly impossible to considerthe former without investigating the latter. Un-derstanding the relationship between physicalhealth, the cost of care and homelessness is inmany ways a Rosetta Stone that clarifies thecomplex snarl of issues that surround homeless-ness. As soon as one takes the time to pull at thethreads of how America’s healthcare system af-fects the poor, an understanding about home-lessness comes into drastic, dramatic relief.

The relationship be-tween healthcare and home-lessness is cyclical, severe,relentless and pervasive.

Many people find theirexit to a life on the street as adirect result of a health crisis.That desperate path ismarked by the too-oftentread footfalls that pass fromuntreated illness into disability and unemploy-ment—which, of course, is a leading cause ofhomelessness. In addition, whether a person hasinsurance or not, the leading cause of bank-ruptcy in America is a crushing wave of medicalexpenses. Income and illness are completely in-tertwined in America’s for-profit healthcaremodel, and when poor people can’t pay, thosepoor people may lose their homes. And a life onthe streets is a life of illness and injury that startsthe cycle turning back on itself.

“Life on the streets is brutal and short,” saysBill Friskics-Warren. “Studies done in severalU.S. cities have shown that the average lifespanof someone living on the streets is more than 30years shorter than that of their housed counter-parts.”

Friskics-Warren manages the United

Neighborhood Health Services’ (UNHS) home-less programs in Nashville, including the Down-town Clinic, the evening clinics in the basementof the Nashville Rescue Mission, and UNHS’mobile medical unit. In his experience, homelesspeople are not only vulnerable to health threatsfrom the elements and violence, but also becauseof lack of treatment for chronic illnesses andconditions.

“Of the nearly 4,000 different people whowere treated at the Down-town clinic in 2010, 44% hadhigh blood pressure, 16%were diabetic and 36% haddocumented mental healthand/or addiction disorders,”says Friskics-Warren. Amongother patients, chronic ob-structive pulmonary disease,AIDS, tuberculosis and mal-nutrition were common

along with the ubiquitous anxiety or depressionthat afflict most everyone who lives day-to-daywith no place to call home.

UNHS has implemented a creative array offacilities and services to address the specialneeds of Nashville’s homeless population. Theorganization took over operation of the Down-town Clinic in the fall of 2008, and their mobilemedical unit is also allowing them to reach intoisolated homeless communities, making health-care available to people who may have no meansof making the trip to the downtown facility orone of the satellite clinics.

“The unit enables us to meet people wherethey are, whether in a shelter or at a congregatemeal site or encampment,” explains Friskics-Warren. “Having to venture across the Cumber-

land River to receive services at our DowntownClinic can be a barrier to someone who might becamping in Shelby Bottoms. Sitting in the almostalways crowded lobby of the Downtown Cliniccan be difficult for someone with fragile mentalhealth or sensory integration issues. Knockingon the door of our mobile unit when it’s parkedoutside the day shelter where you wash yourclothes each week, though, may be less emo-tionally or logistically daunting for some peoplewho are homeless.”

Many may hesitate taking a trip to the doc-tor out of anxiety or inconvenience, but most inthe homeless community make an even moreconcentrated effort to avoid medical care. Withlittle resources available and few alternatives athand, most homeless people will only visit a doc-tor by passing through the emergency roomdoors. As a result, a nasty cut becomes a limb-threatening infection and a seasonal cold resultsin pneumonia. The excessive costs involved inthese preventable emergencies are ultimately an-other symptom of a healthcare philosophy thatreacts to trauma and cures illness rather thanmaintaining health and promoting prevention.And once a person is discharged back out intothe dangers on the street, it’s only a matter oftime before they make a return trip.

Facing up to these hard facts, many munic-ipalities and hospitals have begun to implementunique solutions that are designed to break thelinks between healthcare and homelessness byprescribing shelter as part of their cures. Seattle,Wash.’s Downtown Emergency Service Centerhas made a dramatic impact on the lives ofchronic alcoholics on the streets of the QueenCity.


The Health of a HomeHighlighting the Connections Between Healthcare and Homelessness

Afshan Kirnani performs an ear exam on Delores Davault at the Down-town Clinic. Photo by Raven Lintu

“…homelessness is ahealthcare issue andwhen housing is apart of the prescrip-tion, everybody wins.”

“Mayoral Candidate Conversations”Continued from Page 1

KD: Well, it continues to be a focus. I mean,clearly, MDHA [Metropolitan Developmentand Housing Agency], the housing authority,along with other housing advocates, havetaken the lead on it, and the city has beensupportive. You know, we’re not where wewant to be. Really, the simple fact is that be-cause of the recession, Nashville, like everyother city, whether it’s a large city or a smallcity, has seen an increase in poverty. It hasnot been something that has been immuneto the national economy. There’s been an in-crease. So the challenges remain, and at thesame time that you have the increase inpoverty from people being laid off from jobsor having personal issues that result inthem—because of finance issues—beinghomeless, you’ve also seen tighter govern-ment budgets. I think, clearly, it’s a majorfocus, but [it’s something that] we need tocontinue to work on.

TC: Do you have any parts of your budget orplan for the next few years—if you’re re-elected—to address, concretely, housing? Be-cause from what I’ve understood, for instance,the Section 8 waiting list…is thousands of peo-ple long. People sometimes wait for years toget in to Section 8 housing.

KD: Right, well, Section 8 housing and, re-ally, almost all but MDHA supported hous-ing, has been funded through the federalgovernment. Long before the recessionbegan, federal money going into housing hasbeen reduced. And then, of course, since theObama administration’s been in office, there’sbeen the recession, and there hasn’t been thatnew money coming in. There’s been somenew money coming in, and some new initia-tives, but the city can’t make up for the cuts infederal funding. We have operated on abudget where the government has essentiallycut every year for the last three or four years,and so we can’t make up all the cuts in fed-eral spending.

TC: What about things like housing trustfunds? I saw a section in the Poverty Reduc-tion Plan about creating housing trust funds.

KD: Housing trust funds—some sort of des-ignated source of funding for housing—would be a great thing. Most of thesuggestions in that area is to do somethingthat’s tied to real estate transactions…but cer-tainly the last couple years have been thewrong time to add additional fees to real es-tate transactions. They just weren’t occur-ring. So that’s something that we’ll need tocontinue to look at. Bill Barnes has made avery strong case, and I find Bill to be a verycompelling thinker in this area—that we needto do something like [housing trust funds].



.NEWS.

A New Way to Help HomelessIndividuals Set Up HouseThe Key Alliance introduces Adopt A [email protected]

The Key Alliance, the nonprofitfundraising arm of the MetropolitanHomelessness Commission, recentlylaunched a new program called AdoptA Unit that invites local congregationsto help formerly homeless individualsestablish a household.

Clifton Harris, executive directorof The Key Alliance, said when a per-son moves into permanent housingunder the Housing First program,their low-income apartment is unfur-nished. The goal of the Adopt A Unitinitiative is to help amend that prob-lem.

To that end, The Key Alliance islooking for congregations who arewilling to help a person entering theHousing First program by collectingnew or gently used household itemsand furniture to start their apartment.

Covenant Presbyterian Churchwas the first congregation to partici-pate in the Adopt A Unit initiative.

“We kind of fell into the pro-gram,” Barry Gammons, a churchmember who also chairs The Key Al-liance board of directors, said. “Wecame to know a now formerly home-less individual and as a church de-cided to help him. With my role inThe Key Alliance, I was fortunate tohave the resources at my fingertips tobring in the expertise of the staff tohelp us coordinate our efforts.”

Gammons said the Adopt A Unitprogram provides church members an

opportunity to see, first hand, the dif-ficulties faced by a homeless individ-ual moving into housing. Becomingcurious how else they can help, somemembers have even begun to seek outother ways to serve the homeless com-munity as a result of their experiencewith the program.

Carolyn Grossley Cooper, hous-ing coordinator with The Key Al-liance, said the Adopt A Unit initiativeonly works through collaboration.

“The role of The Key Alliance isto help identify basic needs and offerguidance to a congregation so that, asmembers step up to help a formerlyhomeless neighbor transition fromstreet life into the Housing First pro-gram, they do not overwhelm them-selves or the person they want to help,”Grossley Cooper said.

And according to Gammons, theprogram works.

“We have had nothing but posi-tive experiences,” Gammons said.“One of the missions of our congrega-tion is to reach out to the poor. Pro-grams such as Adopt A Unit allow usto have a positive experience thatkeeps us wanting to stay involved.”

Congregations interested inlearning more about the Adopt A Unitinitiative can email Carolyn GrossleyCooper at [email protected] or call her at 615-780-7051.

For more information about TheKey Alliance and its programs visitwww.thekeyalliance.org.

The “Gulch” Between Luxuryand Low-Income HousingBY NATHAN [email protected]

Near the corner of Charlotteand 11th Avenue North in Nashville,an army of backhoes and bulldozersscoop mangled girders and giant coilsof metal cable into dump trucks to behauled away for disposal. One truckkicks up a cloud of dust as it pulls outinto the road while another truckpulls in to take its place, a demoli-tion-site changing of the guard. Theentire site has been cordoned off andsigns are posted warning away tres-passers, but one section of the chain-link fence has so much debris piledup against it that it has collapsed outtoward a grassy field.

The Gulch has long been one ofNashville’s fastest-growing nicheneighborhoods, and as of early Mayof this year, the neighborhood has lit-erally been booming northward.What was once the old Polar ColdStorage Building will soon make wayfor Eleven North, a new 302-unitapartment complex being developedby TriBridge Residential, a develop-ment company based in Atlanta, Ga.While the new apartments will offerpools, rooftop fitness lounges andconnections to the Greenway, thecurrent site looks more like a war-zone, with the only remaining signsof the storage facility old chunks ofwall still sporting graffiti and a set ofstairs that lead nowhere.

Before May, when demolitionbegan, the 130,000 square-foot build-ing and the overgrown hillside be-hind it served as temporary home tomany among Nashville’s homelessand transient population. With rail-road tracks just up the hill from thesite, the area was especially popularamong train-hoppers in search of anight’s shelter.

Tax Incremental Financing

East of the demolition site, the down-town Nashville skyline simmers inthe summer heat. The most-recog-nized symbol of the city’s skyline, theAT&T Building, was constructed,like many of the Gulch’s recent proj-ects, with the help of one ofNashville’s greatest developmentaltools, an incentive known as tax in-crement financing (TIF).

TIF is a public financingmethod that acts as a subsidy forconstruction projects aimed at rede-

veloping and restoring blighted areaswithin a public sector. When ablighted area is redeveloped or reha-bilitated, the potential for an area’sfuture financial profit increases sig-nificantly. Such improvements pres-ent the opportunity for newinjections of cash flow and vitality toa city, and consequentially raise thereal estate value of the area, which, inturn, brings about an increase inproperty taxes, collecting moremoney for a city and its citizens. TIFutilizes a portion of those future taxrevenues as a means of financingdebt issued to pay for the new devel-opment.

Attempts were made to contactTriBridge Residential to inquireabout the implementation of any in-centives, but no one could be reachedfor comment.

Once an area consisting mainlyof industrial buildings long fallen outof use, Nashville’s Gulch neighbor-hood is a testament to the power ofTIF subsidies. Luxury condomini-ums Icon and Velocity, both of whichwere funded in part by TIF subsidies,were constructed during a period ofheavy condominium development inNashville. As Lindsey Krinks, an out-reach worker with Open Table, an in-terfaith organization working withNashville’s poor and homeless popu-lation, explains, between 2005 and2010, roughly 2,000 units of luxurycondos were constructed inNashville. During that same time, shesays, only a few hundred units of low-income housing were built or refur-bished, all that despite the 10-YearPlan to End Chronic Homelessness’recommendation that 2,000 low-in-come units be established by 2015.

“The irony is,” says Krinks, “many ofthe luxury condo units are still va-cant, while the waiting list for Section8 is 3,500 and the list for public hous-ing is 1,500.”

While low-income housing de-velopments are eligible for TIF, thecity has traditionally offered the in-centive to more high-end incomeprojects.

Affordable Housing

Although housing projects like Iconand the new Eleven North complexrepresent the major trend in housingconstruction in recent years, the cityhas seen a handful of developmentsin affordable housing projects, aswell.

Affordable housing is propertythat is buyable or rentable for a per-son at 80% of the area median in-come. A 30% portion of the tenant’stotal income is reserved to pay forhousing costs to avoid a dispropor-tional cost burden. In a rental situa-tion, housing costs consist of rentand utilities. For an owner, housingcosts consist of a mortgage, utilitiesand any taxes on the property. UrbanHousing Solutions (UHS), whichowns and operates 23 affordablehousing complexes in Nashville, isone non-profit that is able to meetthese figures, offering apartments forrent at about $400 a month. Rent atthese units is comprised of operationcosts as well as any outstanding debtservices on the unit. Operation costsequal about $275-$300 a month for


Once home to squatters, soon to be the home of urbancondominiums, Eleven North. Photo by Raven Lintu

“Candidate Conversations”Continued from Page 4

And I’d like to see us do it. We’ve beentalking about it for…long before I be-came mayor, and we still need to getsomething done.

TC: The next question deals with po-lice and social service issues aroundhomelessness. In March of this year, asubcommittee (the Committee on Po-lice/Homeless Issues) out of the MetroHomelessness Commission presentedfindings that looked into statistics ofarrests of homeless individuals forwhat are often called “quality of life”crimes in Nashville. Things like “ob-struction of the passageway,” “public in-toxication,” “trespassing,” things likethat. In all categories, the findingsshowed that the number of arrests hadincreased significantly over the last fiveyears. Some have argued that this in-

crease is due, in large part, to the qual-ity of life campaign itself, and not somuch to an actual increase in lawless-ness. What’s your take on this debate?Do you think there has been a dispro-portionate application of certain ordi-nances or citations to certain membersof the community, or do you see it an-other way?

KD: Well, I think what’s happening…Idon’t think I’d say “disproportionate.”You have this natural tension betweencertain quality of life type offenses—public intoxication, public indecency,when someone’s using the streets oran area as a bathroom—that are tiedto homelessness, but that, at the sametime, affect a neighborhood in a veryadverse way. I think the police have toenforce the laws. It is a balance. I don’tthink that they can just say, We’re not


.EXPERIENCE.


Cicada Memories My People (One Hell of a Crowd!)BY GARY “MOOSE” ELLISONFormerly Homeless [email protected]

For a number of years I’ve hungout and run around witha kind of rough crowd ofpeople. It’s a smorgas-bord of drunks, prosti-tutes, thieves, liars,gluttons, adulterers andmurderers. Just a regular(you name it!) hell of acrowd.

Although somepeople are really good atheart, a lot of them aren’tso much. I try to help theones that I can and sometimes someof them help me too. Some try theirbest to live a good life, and some don’teven try. Nonetheless, I feel a kinship

and common bond, like a brother/sis-ter kind of thing. I try to accept them,each and every one on an individualbasis—live and let live.

By the way, who says going tochurch isn’t any fun?This is the rough crowdI’m talking about! It’sbetter than any realityshow! If you want a real-ity show, follow mearound for a week ortwo.

Don’t go tochurch for the Lord onSunday and live like thedevil the rest of theweek!

Be true to yourself.Just wait ‘til I write about the

“homeless crowd”—then it’ll re-ally get interesting!

My Grandmother (1918-2011) BY EDWIN LEARNARDFormerly Homeless [email protected]

My grandmother, Constance K.Till, was born on August 20, 1918. Shedied on April 23, 2011. She may begone, but she left an in-delible impression on methat will never be forgot-ten.

My grandmotherpossessed unbridledcourage and willpower. Ican remember an inci-dent that epitomizedthese traits. In 1989, aneighbor was hecklingme. We exchangedwords. I went inside mygrandma’s house where I told herabout the incident. When I left thehouse later, she went outside with me.She said, “If that guy says anything toyou again, I’m going to tell him off.”She would stick up for me when noone else would. (Nothing else hap-pened between me and the gentle-man, and we eventually reconciled ourdifferences.)

My grandmother instilled goodvalues in me. She encouraged me todo things in an honest and ethicalmanner. She told me how to stick upfor myself without hitting someone.She told me to look at the inside of aperson more than the outside and tonot be superficial.

Besides being a loyal and stead-fast family member, my grandma wasarguably the best friend I ever had.When many of my “friends” ran awayfrom me when things were dismal, shestood by me. During adversity, youfind out who your true friends are. She

proved beyond any doubt that she wasone of them. She was there for me ingood times and bad.

Like me, my grandma was anavid sports fan and had a comical sideto her. On October 15, 1988, a hob-bling, injured Kirk Gibson came to bat

for the Los AngelesDodgers at the bottomof the ninth inning ingame one of the WorldSeries against the Oak-land A’s. In the at-bat,Gibson hit a two-runhomerun that won thegame for the Dodgers. Aflabbergasted Jack Buck,who called the game,said after the homerun,“I don’t believe what Ijust saw!” Sometime

after the game, my grandma said,“What? You never saw someone hit ahomerun before?” I laughed uncon-trollably. Even though my grand-mother had basically a stern andserious disposition, she could be face-tious when she wanted to.

Constance K. Till lived to be al-most 93 years old. She lived a good,full life—one that was about honestyand integrity. She possessed goodmorals and scruples. She was not onlya loyal family member, but also a goodfriend and a mentor. At 4 feet 11inches, she may have been diminutivein stature, but she stood taller in myeyes than anyone I have ever known.She was a resilient woman who alwaysbounced back from a negative experi-ence. When I count my blessings, Icount her twice. Rest in peace,grandma. I will see you again one day.

“Candidate Conversations”Continued from Page 5

gonna do these [citations] in down-town, and expect us to have a vi-able downtown. It just doesn’twork that way. If you’re a down-town resident...and you’ve madean investment in the city, andyou’re working and you’re tryingto live downtown, having publicintoxication, public lewdness,blocking of passageways, is a realquality of life problem for that per-son. And it’s a safety issue for thatperson. And I think part of whatwe need to do as a city is have asafe downtown, and a city thatpeople feel safe in. Now that does-n’t mean that you’re heartless, oryou just disregard—you’ve gottathink of other places where peoplecan be. There should be bath-rooms available. But, at the sametime, you just can’t say, if some-body wants to do act A in public,that that’s OK. I don’t think it is.

TC: Yeah, I agree. And I think youjust hit on it there—one of themajor problems is really just thestark lack of restrooms that areavailable to the public if you’re notalready a purchasing customer at,say, a Subway or something likethat. We’ve also interacted withfolks who, quite literally, were wait-ing on the bus on the edge of thesidewalk, put their bag down torest—they’ve been trucking aroundtown all day long—and before theyknow it, they’ve got a citation intheir hand. And so, I think a lot oftimes, at least from our observa-tion, when there aren’t many placesfor people to go, especially when thehousing situation is as it is, arrest-ing folks and giving citations forthese kinds of things might be in-evitable. Hence, what the commit-tee has put forth is that socialservices should be able to be in-volved when an officer comes uponsomeone doing something ille-gal…rather than giving citationsfor each of these acts, possibly look-ing into contacting social serviceagencies to connect them with serv-ices rather than continue [to esca-late] jail costs…

KD: Right. Jail doesn’t do much forsomebody… You know, when Iwas a young public defender—or amiddle-aged public defender—Iworked with Charlie Strobel andothers to create a program wherepeople who were picked up forpublic intoxication were brought


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BY ROD COLLINSFormerly Homeless [email protected]

With the return of the cicadascome memories long forgotten.Growing up in the South you getused to the sounds of the cricketschirping at night in the lush greenforests and the frogs croaking whilethey bubble up and deflate. Sum-mertime wouldn’t have been thesame without those welcome soundsthat signaled the end of anotherschool year. But those nasty insectswe called the locusts didn’t get thedelightful reception that the glowingfireflies did with their lights sogolden-green.

I remember the terror I felt thefirst time cicadas came and seemedto fly so erratically with no directionat all in mind. They brought uponme such a sense of dread for the out-doors that I seemed to be runningaway from monsters in a horrormovie that definitely wouldn’t endwell. There was nothing anyonecould say to calm my fears after theyhad flown into my hair like a hive ofbees. Outside was dangerous, in-deed! Thankfully, they didn’t get tostick around that long.

I spent most of the season atmy Granny’s house on a street calledMoore Avenue. The grown-ups usu-ally referred to it as “Poor Avenue,”since poverty reigned supreme inour particular hood. We didn’t knowmuch about other cultures or races,except for what we saw on TV, butwe knew that we were called “poorwhite trash,” and from lookingaround, it seemed that everybodyneeded more of something. Ofcourse, more money seemed to bethe obvious answer to our problems;but I knew that more love was whatwe all really needed.

Little Granny was a real pieceof work. She had raised nine chil-dren on her own and was too proudfor Welfare. The only thing we reallyknew about our granddaddy wasthat he liked his whiskey, smokes

and cinnamon chewing gum. Mostimportant, he had left Little Grannystrapped with all those kids! It lefther bitter and forever ruminatingover the past. I can still see her sip-ping her instant coffee from thesaucer instead of the cup. She likedto blow on it to get the temperaturejust right. Morning after morningshe sat at the kitchen table readingher Holy Bible out loud, only look-ing up to glance at her preciousplants that she watered more thanshe cared for us. We were called hea-thens and animals that needed to betrained right. It was crystal clear thatshe didn’t want to raise her children’schildren, about twelve of us eachsummer day. I overheard one of theneighbors refer to her as “The OldWoman Who Lived in a Shoe,” and Iknew the rest of that nursery rhyme.

Looking back now, she proba-bly had obsessive compulsive disor-der since she cleaned the housespotless each and every day. Wewere forced outside with those nasty,flying insects and were chased outwith a broom if we attempted tocome in for a drink of water or amayonnaise sandwich on lightbread. Occasionally, I would ask if Icould watch The Young and the Rest-less with her and lay my head on herlap. She would look at me with thathair of hers stretched back tightlyinto a severe bun, and peer over hercat-eye glasses and say, “Just for aminute or two, I reckon.” Her lap feltlike a cold and jaded stone. Even still,I would tell her that I loved her andwait for a reply that never came. Thepinto beans would always call for herattention, and my special time withLittle Granny swiftly ended.

So with the fear of attack andcertain death in my heart, I returnedto the front yard that had beenrubbed clean of any grass from somany children’s feet over the yearsand prayed that the cicadas wouldleave me to dream of my escapefrom the ceaseless wanting onMoore Avenue. I guess those cicadasstill bug me today.

.MAYORAL.



to the Guest House, instead of being brought tothe jail. You know, I’d seen [detainees] go into thedrunk tank, their medical needs aren’t met, andthey essentially just dry out, or not dry out, overa period of time, and nothing happens. And Ithink what Charlie Strobel did is a great thing.That’s a good model, and I think that’s what weshould strive for. But, again, I think, if there arerepeat offenders, and if there is a sense that thereis a lack of safety on public streets, I think the po-lice just have to do their jobs… I don’t know whata citation accomplishes, as in many cases, butagain, I think the police have to enforce the lawsas written. I don’t think it’s something you justignore. The laws are on the book for a reason.That’s what the legislative bodies have voted forand passed.

TC: Sure. That makes sense. I would just hopethat it’s at least part of the conversation more—that we can find viable alternatives other than…

KD: Well I think that’s the answer, is to look forviable alternatives, whether to create a day cen-ter or places where people can go. But for every-one saying, You’re enforcing the law too strictly(or just enforcing the law period)…there are theneighbors and the residents saying, We live here,and we should be treated like any other neigh-borhood. And I also believe we need to have—it’sa good thing to have—a viable, active downtownthat people feel safe in and people feel confident in.

TC: Yeah, and you hit on it there for me, too. Youknow, you’ve got people who live downtown andfolks who might live in shelters downtown, and atthe end of the day, both of [them] are Nashvil-lians, they’re members of the same community,and so I think you’ve hit it on the head that we’vegot to find a way for everyone to coexist peaceablywithout getting in each other’s hair too much. Butyes, some alternatives definitely need to be talkedabout…

KD: And, you know, if we can create a day cen-ter, or you create places where people can goduring the day, if there’d be someplace wherethey’d have access to food and to restrooms, thenyou want people to use them. But it’s a difficultissue. And some of the people who are most en-gaged in making Nashville an interesting urbanarea are the people who live downtown and whojust want to live in a way where they think they’resafe, and their kids are safe, and their families aresafe, and they’re able to move around, they don’tfeel intimidated, they don’t feel like, every timethey go outside, they’re gonna witness somethingthey don’t want to see. And I don’t think that’sunreasonable for anybody to ask for. And I thinkour police, particularly our Downtown CentralPrecinct, they have been very good about work-ing with all groups. They certainly hear whenresidents have problems, but I think they are alsovery good at talking to folks about homelessnessissues and working with the homeless. We’vebeen very proactive during periods of badweather, of asking our police and others to go outand warn people and to help people get off thestreets when they need to. We’ve really stepped

that up, and I think they do a good job. And Iknow that in their hearts they’re very compas-sionate people.

TC: In your recent budget address you mention,as you have many times before, that three of yourmain priorities for Nashville are education, pub-lic safety and economic development, all of whichyou suggest are interconnected. Metro NashvillePublic Schools reports that there are more than2,000 students in their system who they identifyas homeless. The HERO Program was started toaddress this, and other programs and non-profitsin the city such as Safe Haven Family Shelter ad-dress family and child homelessness. My questionis, since education is so important in your cam-paign and administration, what measures, inyour budget, will specifically address the issue ofchild and family homelessness—a populationthat has increased in recent years?

KD: Schools have had programs that have beengeared toward the homeless. To me, the ultimatecure to the poverty issue is education, makinggood education available to all children. And itseems to me that some of the things we’ve donein terms of creating the afterschool program-ming for middle school kids, particularly kidswho need a place to go after school—maybe theydon’t have a home to go to, or they just want toget extra services in terms of tutoring, or culturalservices—those have been very positive. I thinkthe investment we’ve made in education, whichhas been something which actually increased thebudget during the recession—it fundamentallygoes to the idea that we want all kids to receive

an education. And the fact is, a huge portion ofchildren in our public school system qualify forfree and reduced lunch, [or] need additionalservices, and we’re trying to provide them. We’revery interested in the truancy issue—keepingtrack of who’s in school and who’s not in school.When kids move from school to school orthey’re pulled out of school because of home-lessness conditions, by emphasizing the impor-tance of taking attendance and being aware ofwhere kids are and knowing that we want to en-courage kids to be in school, I think that resultsin more of an outreach to families. I certainlyworry about younger children, where that’s moredifficult to do… But we’ve put a lot of re-sources—beyond the school budget—into theregular metro general budget to fund the atten-dance center, to fund afterschool programming,to do what we can to help kids who need ourhelp. And I think keeping track of attendanceand encouraging those who are not attendingschool to attend school is probably one of thebest things we can do.

TC: I would guess that a lot of the reasons behindissues of attendance, for some, has to do withpoverty in the first place—their home situation,or their lack of a home situation.

KD: Right, transportation falls through, theirparents are moving around. And that’s what hap-pens sometimes—kids move out of school dis-tricts, and then it’s harder to keep up with them.


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.MAYORAL.“Mayoral Candidate Conversations”Continued from Page 10

But our schools, in the last couple of years, havereally done a remarkable job of improving theirattendance-keeping, and making attendance andfollowing up on kids who aren’t showing up apriority. And whether they’re not coming be-cause of family issues or they’re not coming be-cause they’re tired and sleeping in...we’ve got tocommunicate to the family and to the kids, thatwe want them in school. And if the kid is home-less or if a kid is in a very impoverished circum-stance, it’s even more important because theschool may be the only place they’re getting a de-cent meal, and a lot of other things.

TC: What is your personal philosophy for ad-dressing homeless and poverty? What do you un-derstand to be the causes and what do you take tobe the most effective ways of addressing homelessand poverty? And if reelected, how do you intendto make Nashville a leader in significantly reduc-ing poverty and homelessness in our own city?

KD: The main thing that I would do would be tofollow and support our Poverty Council—thegroup that Howard Gentry is chairing and [that]involves our social service department—to makesure that we are doing whatever we can to helpreduce poverty. And that includes being aggres-sive on the sort of low-hanging fruit, the thingswe need to work on, and then longer-term goals.I’m very serious about that. I brought Tam Gor-don into the mayor’s office, who has a real pas-

sion about this issue. She started several monthsago. We’re going to focus on this. It’s a priority. Ithink the group has done great work and I wantto see that the poverty initiative works. That’s themain thing. And then the other thing I wouldemphasize is just the priorities that I’ve estab-lished [which] I think affect homelessness andpoverty. If you have good schools, you’re goingto affect the poverty rate. Everbody’s got differentplans or ideas on how you address poverty, but Ithink fundamentally it boils down to giving peo-ple a good education and creating an economicenvironment where they can get jobs. And to dothat you have to be a city with schools that at-tract people and keep people; you’ve got to be acity that is safe, where people feel it’s safe to be inthe city, to go to school, to do whatever. Publicsafety’s a huge priority. And then economic de-velopment. The bottom line is, the only way outof poverty is to create jobs, create opportunities,and that’s what our focus has been.

TC: Speaking of economic development, some CalTurner fellows from Vanderbilt recently did aproject where they went to Charlotte and inter-viewed some housing development people there,and one of the folks there said that every $1 in ahousing trust fund turns into $5 back to the city ineconomic development. Have you heard any statslike that before?

KD: Having good housing and solving the home-lessness problem through housing has a lot ofbenefits. Kids who are in a stable environment interms of housing, whether they’re faced withpoverty issues or not, are more likely to stay in

school, they’re more likely to succeed. If a kid isconstantly being moved around because of hous-ing issues, that makes success in school so muchharder. Housing also provides, I think, the basison which a family or a person can get themselvesestablished enough to where they can participatein the economy, where they can get a job, holdonto a job, and succeed. So housing is key. I agreewith that. But it’s a difficult issue to crack be-cause of the economy and because of the variousrestraints imposed upon us because of that. AndI can’t promise that we’ll do a housing trust fundduring the next four years, but it’s certainlysomething I’d like to see us get done. Like I said,it’s a good idea, we’ve talked about it for 20 yearsor more, and it’s something that would be of ben-efit to the city. The whole model for Habitat forHumanity [shows] the benefits of what housingdoes for a family, what it does for a community.

TC: Yeah. And your own administration hasshown that there are creative ways to fund proj-ects in the midst of a recession, like with the con-vention center, with the hotel taxes, things likethat. So we definitely hope to see some more cre-ative things, because clearly the recession is stilllingering…

KD: Yeah, and a good example would be, withthe convention center…we’ve tried to make surethat minority groups and others locally are get-ting a chance to get some of that work. The morepeople we can get employed and working, thebetter. It really comes down, for me, to jobs,safety, and schools—and schools probably beingthe most important.

Non-incumbent Candidates for Mayor_________________________________

James Keeton is married and has two adultchildren. He is employed in information technol-ogy and has run his own IT consulting business.He has also worked in banking and education. Aresident of Nashville for over 25 years, he receivedboth his BA and MA degrees from TreveccaNazarene University.

Bruce Casper was born in Omaha, Neb. Hehas lived in Nashville for seven years. At 37 yearsold, he has been homeless on and off for a total of17 years. He sells The Contributor and has a dognamed Baby Girl.

Marvin Barnes is a native Nashvillian (hisgreat great grandfather moved here from NorthCarolina). Raised on a farm where he worked formany years with his father, he later worked inconstruction, which he did until 2001. He gradu-ated from White’s Creek High School with highhonors from the vocational department. He hasa wife and two children.

The Contributor: In Nashville’s Poverty Reduc-tion Initiative Plan (initiated under Mayor Dean)as well as in the city’s 10-Year Plan to EndChronic Homelessness (initiated under MayorPurcell), one of the fundamental elements under-stood to be integral to the reduction and/or end of



.MAYORAL.“Mayoral Candidate Conversations”Continued from Page 11

poverty and homelessness is increasing the city’sstock of affordable housing. As The Key Allianceand others suggest, without first providing suffi-cient housing options to the poorest of the poor,homelessness will remain inevitable for thou-sands of people in our city. The Key Alliance alsomakes the case that it costs a city significantly lessto house its homeless population than to bear theburden of jail and hospital costs. In both thePoverty Initiative and the 10-Year Plan, specificgoals are set to establish housing units and/orhousing trust funds to enable the construction ofnew affordable housing units. Should low-incomehousing be a priority for Nashville? If so, why? Ifyou are elected mayor, what steps will you take toensure that the goals set for the construction oflow-income housing units in Nashville will be ac-complished?

James Keeton: There is no excuse for not mak-ing a conscious effort to ensure good affordablehousing. I believe the greatest challenge in a citythe size of Nashville is to keep a rein on housingcosts. There should be a wide range of prices,choices and rents. However, too often realtorsand landlords are guilty of charging whatever themarket will bear. This vicious cycle is not easilyovercome. Everyone needs the security and com-forts of a home, however great or humble itmight be.

I am against building “warehouses” to housethe homeless. When government builds low-in-come housing it tends to look like an institution(although that is changing) and be high-density.Unfortunately, private business often builds thesame type of housing. If it’s going to be done, let’sput some thought into it and get it right. Ware-houses are not the right way to do it. If govern-ment is involved in low-income housing, Ibelieve it should work with and through faith-based organizations such as Habitat for Human-ity and others.

Bruce Casper: Yes, low-income housing shouldbe a priority. Being homeless myself, I think itshould be. There’s going to be more people pass-ing away because of weather conditions and allthat. The only way it’s going to work, though, isif the homeless person wants the help—if theywant the housing, if they’re willing to keep thehousing. Some of the people I’ve come across,they say they want the housing, but they get inthere—and some of them do want the housing,it’s just that once they get into the housing, theydon’t know what to do, because they’ve been onthe streets so long. They have to follow rules, paybills, and so on. They’re not accustomed to it.Like me, if I were to become un-homeless, I’dhave the same problem. But nobody knows whatto do about this. Even me, I don’t know what todo about it.

The biggest thing, though, is to appoint acase manager to each homeless person for a cou-ple months to help them get on their feet. Ap-point a counselor who’d be able to help you payyour bills—not pay them for you, but help showyou what to do and make sure you’re gettingeverything done each month, just for a couplemonths, to make sure the transition’s easy.

As far as housing, what I’d do is take some

of these buildings around here that are aban-doned and turn them into apartments. There’stons of buildings down here, especially in thedowntown area, that could be turned into apart-ment buildings.

Marvin Barnes: Affordable housing trust fundscould be a piece of the pie of solutions needed. Iwould request for those who can to instigate afund through a minor increase in services—inmore than one area, so as to not be a large in-crease in cost and burden on the public. Hope-fully this can be done through a once-a-year coston the public. These funds would be set aside forthe betterment of housing for homeless families.

I would use hotels that are not currently inuse, which would be purchased using grantmoney. Indications are that a single hotel roomused for this purpose might not accommodate afamily, so I would propose using two hotelrooms, which would be done by cutting a doorbetween two units in order to keep families to-gether. After a period of time, families who areable would pay rent at a higher rate. Those in-creased amounts could then be applied to thehousing trust fund.

The Contributor: In March of this year, a sub-committee (the Committee on Police/HomelessIssues) of the Metro Homelessness Commissionpresented its findings from a study that lookedinto the statistics of arrests of homeless individu-als for so-called “quality of life” crimes inNashville over the last five years. The results showthat in all categories (public intoxication, ob-struction of a passageway, trespassing, etc.) thenumber of arrests increased significantly. Somehave argued that this increase is due in large partto the city’s “quality of life” campaign itself, andcannot accurately be attributed to an actual in-crease in lawlessness, that, rather, the laws havebeen applied disproportionately. What is yourtake on this debate? What is the role of the policedepartment and what is the role of social serviceagencies in addressing homelessness in our city?What improvements, if any, might be made inthis area? If you are elected mayor, what course ofaction do you plan to take to address these issues?

James Keeton: I have personally been subjectedto some rather aggressive panhandling in down-town Nashville. If we want Nashville to be at-tractive to visitors, panhandling must bereasonably and strictly restricted. I believe thelaws are not being applied unfairly but wereprobably not applied as strictly in the past. Thereshould be a better way to address the issue be-sides arresting people.

There are places for people to stay for thenight but for various reasons (housing capacity,facility rules, addictions and egos) many home-less will not avail themselves of these resources.They’d rather take their chances on the streets.Unfortunately, we tend to jail people instead oftaking them to receive the proper care. Is there away to help the homeless without the pressureof face-to-face confrontation? Will they acceptthat help or do they wish to continue to controltheir circumstances?

Bruce Casper: Seeing this from a first-hand ex-perience out here on the streets, these quality-

of-life ordinances that metro police departmenthave been issuing are totally wrong. You havehomeless people out here who open a bottle ofbeer and drink it. But then, on the other hand,you have tourists and the citizens of Nashvillewalking down the street with an open containerand they don’t do nothing to them. Just like walk-ing through parking lots that say ‘no trespassing’or blocking the public sidewalk. Normal citizensand tourists do this on a daily basis, but if ahomeless person or more than one homelessperson do these things, they get cited for them.And that’s wrong. Plus, the biggest thing abouttrespassing for me is, if you’re in an area andyou’re just trying to sleep, and you’re not both-ering anybody, and you’re not trashing the area,you should not be getting a citation or going tojail for that. I can understand if it was drunkenbehavior or causing fights all night long. But mepersonally, I have gone to jail and I have receivedcitations for trespassing, so I know what it’s like.

As for metro police department, they’retaking it too far. They’re out to get certain peo-ple. I can understand that there are people outthere doing it on a daily basis. I can name nu-merous people out there who are getting drunkevery day, and they’re throwing them into jail.There is no hope for those people—I’m serious,I know quite a few people out there who don’twant the help. I talked to one officer who saidthey need to put them in jail for longer periods oftime to dry them out. That’s not going to hap-pen. Because they’ve been drinking so long, youcan’t just throw them in jail and expect them todry out. As for social services, we have the serv-ices—Alcoholics Anonymous, stuff like that. It’sjust, like I said before, they need to want the help.You can’t force somebody to get the help.

Marvin Barnes: It is a problem, and a cause ofpolice being tied up with issues of a non-threat-ening nature. Resolving issues surroundinghousing can only help, but ultimately, I’m notsure if these matters can be resolved by govern-ment intervention alone—without the help ofthe general public. Therefore, actions that Iwould take would include talking to churchesand civic leaders for both their ideas and theirhelp.

The Contributor: Metro Nashville PublicSchools (MNPS) has reported that more than2,000 students in the MNPS system have beenidentified as homeless. The HERO Program wasstarted to address this stark number. Other pro-grams and non-profits in the city, few and far be-tween, exist to address family homelessness, suchas Safe Haven Family Shelter, which has room foronly a handful of families at a time. If you areelected mayor, what concrete measures will youtake to address the growing problem of child andfamily homelessness in our city?

James Keeton: It is a sobering reality that thereis a very real need for more programs for familieswho are homeless. Almost all of the existing pro-grams are for men or women but not whole fam-ilies together. I am not sure why this area offamily homelessness has been neglected.

I believe that society is best served whenfamilies remain intact. Even in the instance ofhomelessness, it is in everyone’s best interest to

keep families together if at all possible. Sometype of incentive should be available to faith-based or other non-profit groups to address thissituation more fully. Support groups are essen-tial to help address the necessary needs of thefamily as well as assist in transition while pro-viding hope for the family. This area appears tobe the most neglected.

Bruce Casper: We need more family shelters.At the Salvation Army you have to pay $10 anight to stay there. As far as the men’s andwomen’s missions—I don’t know about thewomen’s mission, but at the men’s mission, fam-ilies aren’t allowed. We need a place for familieswhere they can stay together, because if they’rebroken apart by separate shelters, that’s justgoing to break up the family more. As for theschool, as long as the child’s getting their educa-tion and getting what they need, they shouldn’tbe treated any differently than any other kid.

Marvin Barnes: Number one, if these homelesschildren are without families, then I would en-list the community of Nashville as a whole in get-ting them headed down the right path. Mothersshould never be separated from their childrenjust because they are indigent. If the situation re-quires locating lost family members, then allmeans of effort need to be expended in search-ing for family members. I believe that there is atrue need for homes for those children who haveno one, and am willing to do whatever it takes, ifelected, by signing into law any measures whichwill help to get these children off the street, andinto a home or some other protected environ-ment. Being without family or someone to in-spire you only fans the fires of hopelessness.

The Contributor: What is your personal philos-ophy for addressing poverty and homelessness?What do you understand to be the causes ofpoverty and homelessness and what do you taketo be the most effective ways of addressing povertyand homelessness? If elected mayor, how do youintend to make Nashville a leader in significantlyreducing poverty and homelessness? Why arethese things important at all? What signs of hopedo you see thus far?

James Keeton: I believe poverty and homeless-ness are indicative of a broken world. The causesare as varied and as individual as is each person.More and more we live in a world where theminimal standard of living continues to increaseand many cannot keep up. Some are homelessbecause of addictions. Many of us are two pay-checks away from being homeless and all itwould take is for one domino to fall.

My personal philosophy for addressingpoverty and homelessness is that we cannot justignore it. We must work on why it happens andwhat we as members of the community can do tokeep it from happening. We should not make itdifficult for people to overcome their addictions,get an education, learn a skill, earn a living andmerge back into productivity. It’s easy to recom-mend a quick-fix solution and say, “there, we’vedone something.” It’s easier to spend money than


.MAYORAL.



to invest your own time and attention into indi-viduals to help them turn their lives around. Yetthere are people who have a calling to do justthat.

There are no “throw away” people. I believeeach person is made in the image of God andthat everyone is redeemable.

I don’t see business or government takingthe lead in reducing or eliminating poverty andhomelessness because it’s always going to beabout the bottom line. Eventually, they will resistkeeping such programs going because it will costtoo much. But individual and faith-based en-deavors will go the extra mile regardless of thecost. They will invest in lives if they are allowedto do so by the politicians and pundits. Givingpeople hope is the beginning of the transforma-tion. I don’t see a lot of hope when I look at gov-ernment. But government can make it easier forthose people and groups who do specialize in of-fering hope and a way back to some sense of nor-malcy.

I am reminded how the founders of the Sal-vation Army worked together to help those whowere in need. While William Booth preached tothe poor in less than ideal circumstances, hiswife Catherine spoke to the wealthy in their af-fluent churches, pleading for donations for theirwork. Similarly, those in our society who are inneed continue to need advocates to plead theirsituations to the movers and shakers in our city.If individuals have the resources to help, weshould not ignore those in need. Perhaps a “clash

of civilizations” is what is needed to jolt us outof our complacency. Sadly, we will spend obsceneamounts of money on economic developmentand advertising but very little to help those inneed.

Bruce Casper: What signs of hope have I seenso far? Nothing, because Mayor Karl Dean hasdone nothing. He’s just telling metro police de-partment there is zero tolerance for homelesspeople in Nashville. I have been told that by acop at 3:00 o’clock in the morning: there is zerotolerance for homelessness. As for the homelessissue itself. Homelessness has always been—asfar back as when God created earth. Adam andEve were homeless. Jesus was homeless. That’swhat people don’t understand: homelessness hasbeen around forever. And like I said, the only wayto end homelessness is if the homeless personwants the help. When I first announced I wasrunning for mayor, I told some homeless peopleabout it. And they didn’t say do this or do that,they just said, “Please help us?” And I said, “Howam I supposed to help you?” And what I’ve cometo realize over the last three months is, there arecertain people who don’t want help—they don’twant a hand up, they want a handout.

The reason I’m running for mayor, though,is that the generalization of homelessness in thepublic is wrong. We’re all considered bums, andother things that are unnamable. I was in a storethe other day, during Fan Fair, and I was in linewhen a [homeless] guy came in and asked if hecould exchange his can of Pepsi for a can ofSprite. They told him they didn’t have that in acan. He walked out and the lady at the register

said, “That’s what all bums are like.” I turnedaround and I looked at her and said, “Excuse me,but we’re not all bums, thank you very much,”and walked out the door. That ticked me off be-cause it’s a generalization of homelessness. Itwould be like me saying all blondes are dumb—which I’m not saying! Don’t quote me on that!Yes, there are people out here on the streets whoare working. And you don’t see them out hereevery day, except for the ones who are selling thepaper.

Even metro police department, on thewhole, has generalized homelessness as bumsand street urchins and everything else. We’re notall like that. Some of us do not want to be on thestreets. It’s just that if we were off the streets, andin a place, we wouldn’t know what to do withourselves. Especially when you have close-knitcontact with a whole bunch of people and thenyou’re thrown into a place by yourself—I’ve donethat and I’ve gone crazy, basically. I hate beingalone when I’m in a place. But, when I’m on thestreets, I’d rather be alone than around a lot ofpeople. So it’s like a no-win solution!

The only solution I see is, it relies on thehomeless person himself. If they want the help,that’s the only way you’ll end homelessness.

Marvin Barnes: My personal philosophy is thatif someone truly needs help then they need to behelped. I do believe there are those who will notaccept or want help. I also believe that peopleshould be willing to work, for if they are unwill-ing to bear some kind of burden, then they be-come a burden on society. As JFK said, “Ask notwhat your country can do for you, ask what you

can do for your country.” Poverty and homelessness are always going

to exist somewhere, but the simple truth of thematter is, people need more than monetary sup-port. They first need the will to get out of theseterrible conditions, or else all the help in theworld comes to naught. Helping people to havethe will to act is the only way you can addressthis problem. This can only happen by treatingthem for who they are: human beings. They aresomebody, and they have just as much potential,or just as much hope, as anyone else. But someare unable to see it. Helping them see the wholepicture is part of the key, and growing the will toact is the second part of the key. These things areimportant because without them no one can re-move themselves from this downward spiral ofdepression and hopelessness.

There are many avenues of hope, and somehave nothing to do with poverty and homeless-ness. For instance, there are stores that offer usedclothing at a price that can help those in poverty.Many also offer help by giving clothing to thosein need, for instance, Clara’s Closet. Others are inthe business of helping with problems that existin the mind. Churches in the area probably offeras much to these individuals as anyone can, butmany of those who are so far gone down the roadof hopelessness have truly become lost insidethemselves.

I have often said, the fastest runner hasnever run a race, and the fastest swimmer hasnever been in the water. No one can know if theycan succeed at something if they never try.

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