Last month, Fulton McKinney, a man experiencing homeless in his 50’s, was found dead at Memphis carwash. His body had already begun to decompose by the time he was discovered. This deeply saddens and frustrates us, as it should anyone with a shred of human decency. What are we doing as a community to ensure that our most vulnerable residents have access to equitable and affordable housing? There are so many people out there who slip through the cracks and are bypassed-where is the outreach from homeless service providers? Holding a vigil is a nice gesture, as we did earlier this year for Shelley Thompson, a young lady who froze to death at City Hall on a cold January night, but what happens afterward? At H.O.P.E., we believe it will take more than an occasional visit to the soup kitchen, but ongoing, coordinated outreach, as well as political leadership that is willing to stop paying lip service to poverty, without putting their money where their mouths are. Currently, there is no public shelter in town, the City of Memphis invests NOTHING in direct homeless services, but last year, spent 6 weeks discussing and eventually, passing an ordinance that further criminalized panhandling, but did absolutely nothing to alleviate the conditions that cause the problem in the first place.
Since this is an election season, we are encouraging our members & supporters to attend some of these candidate forums and ask those who want your vote what they plan to do about people dying on our streets, as well as how they will address homelessness if elected. Call the Shelby County Commission at (901) 222-1000 and flood them with questions on which candidates have homelessness on their platform. Call City Council at 901) 636-6786 and demand that they finally allocate funding for direct homeless services, and invest in affordable housing. Things will only change if we demand it! Otherwise, we will likely be reporting on more deaths this year.
Summer Survival Continues, YOU can help!
Our Summer Survival campaign is still underway! Throughout this summer, H.O.P.E. members are feeding vulnerable and hungry folks, and their children at Morris Park. We are providing sandwiches, bottled water, and chips, as well as hygiene kits. We’re always in need of more volunteers to help distribute items, which is a great opportunity for anyone who may need community service hours. Youth volunteers are welcome, but must be accompanied by an adult if under 18. We need your help to make this summer great for those in need!
During our first Summer Survival day, we gave away 50 snack bags! Folks were so happy and excited to see us because some of them literally did not know where the next meal was coming from. The next Summer Survival date is this Thursday July 12th, so there is still time to donate and volunteer with H.O.P.E!
For more information about how you can help donate or support HOPE or those who do the work to combat homelessness,or would like to put on a HOPE shirt and volunteer, contact Tamara Hendrix, (901)725.4990 or tamara@midsouthpeace.org.
Feed the Movement!
H.O.P.E. would like to thank Marcos Pizza for providing pizzas for the H.O.P.E meetings on the 1st Wednesday of the month. H.O.P.E is a supportive advocacy group for people with the experiences of homelessness. One of the ways in which we learn about the aforementioned needs and strategize how we can best support one another through this work is through our weekly Wednesday meetings in which we invite people experiencing homelessness to fellowship, share, and brainstorm. It is very important that H.O.P.E. continues to hear from the homeless community about the differing levels of oppression that many of us may face when attempting to navigate through the impending hardships of scarce services available in Memphis. For many groups and organizations offering free food at meetings is a plus for their attendees, but for H.O.P.E. it is a necessity, due to the fact that most often the meal offered at H.O.P.E. meetings may be the only meal they will have that day.
As H.O.P.E. grows in numbers our expenses grow as well. How can you help? You can help by donating prepared foods on Wednesdays to our meeting that afternoon. Don’t have time to cook or buy prepared foods and bring them to our meeting space? We also accept monetary donations towards this cause. Neither of those options seem feasible for you presently? We are also looking for restaurants willing to donate food to our meetings. As always, all forms of donations are completely tax deductible.
If you would like to discuss how you can offer support to HOPE please call Tamara @ 901-254-5964 or email tamara@midsouthpeace.org.