Students Rally for Homeless

After hearing Nashville Homeless Power Project members speak at Lipscomb University just weeks ago. Students have become clear that it is our moral responsibility to ensure that all of our brothers and sisters have housing. They are marching to congratulate the Mayor for his work and to ask him to ensure that we have $2.3 Million in his budget that he will announce on March 23rd during his budget address.
On Friday, March 9th, 2007, more than one hundred Lipscomb University students and faculty with support from various members of the community will gather and walk from the Downtown Public Library to the front steps of the Courthouse where they will deliver over 800 letters to the Mayor’s Office encouraging him to make it a priority in his last budget proposal to fund the construction of 200 low-income housing units. The official petition states:

“As students who are deeply concerned about the homeless in Nashville, we applaud Mayor Purcell in his Strategic Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. However, we are asking for his assurance that he will make it a priority to preserve $2.3 Million to build 200 low-income housing units before the end of his term in office. Mayor Purcell has acknowledged that the root cause of homelessness in Nashville is a lack of low-income housing (page 5 of his commission). With this gathering and through these letters, our aim is to encourage the Mayor in the fulfillment of his plan. Only 50 housing units, while helpful, is simply not enough for a plan which aims to bring about an end to homelessness in Nashville. We believe that the only way to bring about this end is by an active commitment to prayer on behalf of the homeless, joined together with our city’s resources, money, and care for those desperately in need of our help.”

Lindsey Glenn, a senior at Lipscomb University, and primary organizer of the event, has this to say: “Since I’ve been at Lipscomb, my understanding of what is happening in the world has greatly expanded; I’ve learned that poverty and suffering are everywhere. The gap between the world’s rich and poor is expanding daily, but God is moving in us and in the world, and that encourages me. I’m beginning, also, to see that the cycles of poverty and oppression cannot be fixed with a Band Aid. We must get to the root of these problems and start from there. With this gathering, we will be doing just that,” said Glenn. “We hope that this will be an event that unites the entire Nashville community in the fight against homelessness.”
Andrew Krinks, a junior at Lipscomb University says, “This gathering will serve as a tangible way of conveying to Mayor Purcell that students are concerned and care about our homeless neighbors in Nashville. We hope to address this problem by encouraging the mayor to uphold his proposal to increase the development of low-income housing, a proposal which is central to the eradication of homelessness in our city.”


Nashville Homeless Power Project
Homeless Organizing the Homeless & Working for Solutions
42 The Arcade, Nashville, Tennessee 37219
Office: (615) 733-0633 Cell: (615) 569-4740
info@homelesspower.org http://www.homelesspower.org/