FINDING HELP
“Where to Turn in Nashville” is a comprehensive resource guide for Nashville for anyone looking for help. You can find the online guide here or order printed guides here. It is updated every year.
ARTICLES
Outreach to People Experiencing Homelessness, the best guide available to the practice of street outreach, written by the deeply experienced, thoughtful, and caring Ken Kraybill.
No Safe Place, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty’s guide to fighting the criminalization of the marginalized along with their advocacy manual.
Equitable Development: Promising Practices to Maximize Affordability and Minimize Displacement in Nashville’s Urban Core, a 2015 study on development, gentrification, and affordable housing by Jim Fraser and other Peabody researchers.
The 100,000 Homes Campaign: Cost Savings Assessment Summary: Analysis by Liana Downey & Associates suggests Community Solutions’ 100,000 Homes Campaign will save the US Federal Government approximately $1.3 billion dollars a year. This equates to an average savings of $13,000 per person housed. For every year these people stay housed, the government saves another $1.3 billion.
Where We Sleep: Cost When Homeless and Housed in Los Angeles: Underwritten through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority by the County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, Corporation for Supportive Housing, The California Endowment, and the Economic Roundtable.
VIDEOS/FILMS
Tent City U.S.A.
An account of the struggles of some of our friends ins Nashville’s homeless community and advocates to preserve their fragile encampment and right to rest
Criminalization of Homelessness, Paul Boden of WRAP offers a brief history of laws that criminalize people who are homeless
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime, TED Talk by Nadine Burke Harris
Wealth Inequality in America, 6 minute infographic video on perceived vs. actual wealth disparity in America
Open Table Nashville’s YouTube channel, with videos from past trainings
LINKS TO OTHER GROUPS
National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC): A national organization with great resources based in Nashville and working for health care for those experiencing homelessness.
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty: A national organization fighting the criminalization of people experiencing homelessness with links to studies, reports, and resources.
Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP): A group working to expose and eliminate the root causes of civil and human rights abuses of people experiencing poverty and homelessness in our communities.
Picture the Homeless: Organizing the leadership of homeless people to end homelessness in New York.
Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality (H.O.P.E.): Powerful collective organizing for transparency, accountability, and access to housing and services in Memphis.
Start Your Recovery: Offers comprehensive resources for people who are struggling with substance use issues. It’s a one-stop-shop for “reputable, objective information about signs, symptoms, conditions, treatment options, and resources — presented in a user-friendly format and in language that’s easy to understand.”
STATISTICS AND HANDOUTS
Statistics on Homelessness in Nashville handout
How to Contact Your Local Elected Officials handout
How a Bill Becomes a Law in Metro Council handout
Open Table Nashville De-Escalation Guide
BOOKS
Toxic Charity: How the Church Hurts Those They Help and How to Reverse It, Robert Lupton
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,
Out of Place: Homeless Mobilizations, Subcities, and Contested Landscapes, Talmadge Wright
Lost in Space: The Criminalization, Globalization, and Urban Ecology of Homelessness, Randall Amster
Policing the Poor: From Slave Plantation to Public Housing, Neil Websdale
The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice, Jeffrey Reiman & Paul Leighton
Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement,
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander
For books, articles, and links recommended for our Street Chaplaincy initiative, please visit here.