August 25-31, 2025
Rev. Ashton Alexander, Senior Pastor
Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church
In 2022, Tennessee made sleeping on public ground a felony, effectively criminalizing homelessness. To make matters worse, a 2024 Supreme Court decision has given cities more discretion and authority to punish outdoors sleeping.
The 2023 Point-in-Time count—a federally required snapshot conducted one night each January—recorded 1,292 people experiencing homelessness in Memphis and Shelby County. Of these, the majority were sheltered, but a significant number remained unsheltered. Emergency shelter capacity in Memphis is limited, meaning families and individuals often have nowhere safe to turn. Combined with rising rental costs and a lack of affordable units, these conditions make it harder for people to exit homelessness quickly and more likely for homelessness to become prolonged in our community.
Memphis is not the exception, however. This is a national trend. Although some progress has been made in reducing chronic homelessness over the past decade, recent years have seen increases driven by inflation, housing shortages, and the aftershocks of the pandemic. Memphis particularly faces unique challenges. Our community has one of the highest poverty rates among large U.S. cities, and nearly one in four renters spends more than half their income on housing. These pressures mean that even minor setbacks, like a job loss or medical bill, can tip households into homelessness.
What should we be doing as the church?
We must first make the personal commitment to live out Jesus’ words found in Matthew 22:39: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Embracing Jesus’ message of love is the starting point for real transformation in the community. Advocate for local resources on prevention. Prevention starts with keeping people housed in the first place. As a community, we can support eviction-prevention funds, legal aid, and rental assistance programs coordinated through the Community Alliance for the Homeless. These resources help families stay in their homes and reduce the strain on shelters and the streets.
Urge the city council to allocate dollars for public housing. While Tennessee law prohibits rent control, local leaders can still expand affordability by funding public housing, preserving existing units, and developing new ones through federal programs like HOME-ARP and ESG. Churches and community members must call on the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission to prioritize these dollars for deeply affordable housing. A consistent public witness can ensure housing is treated not as a privilege, but as a human right. Matthew Desmond, in his book Evicted, wisely states that “it is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.”