Students Assemble for Homeless Rights

On Friday, March 9, more than 100 area students and members of the community will gather in front of the Metro Courthouse where they will deliver more than 800 letters to the Mayor’s Office encouraging him to make it a priority in his last budget proposal to fund the construction of more 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 fund the construction of more low-income housing units here in our city. Mayor Purcell has acknowledged that the root cause of homelessness in Nashville is a lack of low-income housing (see page 5 of his commission). With this gathering, we are formally declaring that housing is more than a need, it is a human right. Additionally, we believe that the only way to bring about housing for all citizens 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 bandage. We must get to the root of these problems and start from there. With this gathering, we will be doing just that. We hope that this will be an event that awakens and 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 about and care for our homeless neighbors in Nashville. We hope to address this problem by encouraging the mayor to make it a priority to increase the development of low-income housing, a plan which is central to the eradication of homelessness in our city. Our brothers and sisters are in need of our help; let us all come together—students and government officials alike—to bring about housing for our neighbors in need.”