Students organize march to raise awareness of homeless population
Janel Shoun |
Inspired by a student-lead forum on homelessness in February, over 100 Lipscomb students are expected to participate in a gathering downtown in which they will walk to the mayor’s office at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, March 9.
Pi Kappa Sigma and Students for International Peace and Justice invite all Lipscomb students with a concern for the homeless to walk from the downtown library to Mayor Bill Purcell’s office in the metro courthouse and deliver letters to support him in his fight against homelessness. They will also ask him to consider enabling the construction of at least 200 low-income housing units before he leaves office.
Shuttles will pick up students in front of Allen Arena beginning at 9:30 a.m. until just after 10 a.m., and the walk is scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m.
“Since I’ve been at Lipscomb, my scope of what is happening in the world has greatly expanded. I’ve learned that poverty and suffering are everywhere,” said Lindsey Glenn, a senior English major who is the coordinator of Facing Hunger Week and the primary organizer of this Friday’s event. “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 to learn 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.
By partnering with the Nashville Homeless Power Project, Lipscomb students have learned that the leading cause of poverty and homelessness in Nashville is the lack of low-income housing, so students will be delivering letters encouraging Mayor Purcell to reserve $2.3 million for the building of 200 housing units. That’s only one-ninth of the units that his 2005 Strategic Plan to End Chronic Homelessness proposed, Glenn said.
After University Bible on Tuesday, more than 800 students signed letters to deliver to the mayor at the gathering on Friday.
“This is an effort to show Mayor Purcell that students are concerned and care about the homeless problem in Nashville,” said junior Andrew Krinks, another organizer. “And we hope to address this problem by encouraging Mayor Purcell to uphold his proposal to increase the development of low-income housing.”
Students will walk from the downtown library to Church Street, to Fifth Avenue, to Deadrick Street and to the mayor’s office in the metro courthouse. “We hope that this gathering will be one that unites the entire Nashville community in the fight against homelessness,” Glenn said.