2
Geography Project Plan Assignment
Introduction
Homelessness is a term that everyone is familiar with. There is a common
misconception that homelessness is a chronic condition (“What are the four types of
homelessness?,” 2024). There are four different types of homelessness. Transitional which is
caused by a major life change or catastrophic event. Episodic homelessness which is when
someone experiences homelessness more than three time in a period of twelve months.
Chronic homelessness is when someone has been homeless for more than a year and usually
have some sort of disability. This can be physical, mental, addiction, or any condition that
restricts their ability to escape being homeless. The fourth type is called hidden homelessness.
This is when someone lives with an individual for a certain period of type then moves on to a
different place. Growing up a street term for this was called couch hopping.
General Overview and Rationale
In Nashville Tennessee homelessness is something you see every day. Nashville’s
homeless population has drastically risen. The current estimate of homeless people in Nashville
is around two thousand people. This is due to the city’s continuous growth, which has caused
the cost of living and housing prices to skyrocket. The problem is as the cost of living goes up
people’s wages are staying the same. The number of people experiencing chronic homelessness
in Nashville has increased nearly seventy-seven percent over the past year alone. According to
researchers there are some many homeless people in Nashville because they cannot find
3
Geography Project Plan Assignment
housing that fits their budget. The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
estimates that 12 million renters and homeowners pay more than 50 percent of their annual
income on housing (“Reasons for homelessness,” n.d.).
After doing some research on homelessness in Nashville Tennessee, I plan to open more
food banks, homeless shelters that do not have a maximum number of nights allowed, and to
create more affordable housing. Housing is not a luxury; it is a human right. For this to all e
possible it is also important to get funding through the government and investors that are
willing to help those who are struggling to help themselves. I also will team up with the local
churches and see how they could help with providing shelter, food, and to provide spiritual
services and hopefully bring the homeless closer to God. There are too many people living on
the street, and this include American war heroes. Again, housing is a right not a luxury.
Everyone deserves a warm safe place to lay their heads at night.
Region Relevance
Nashville Tennessee is also referred to as “Music City”. Nashville is the capital of
Tennessee and is located in Davidson County. The formal region of Nashville is four hundred
and ninety-seven square miles. As of 2024, Nashville’s current population is one million three
hundred and thirty-three thousand. Currently in Nashville there is one place that feeds the
homeless. This is called “The Nashville Food Project”. The Nashville Food Project strives to
provide increased access to healthy foods in the homeless and underserved communities in the
Middle TN area (“Nashville Food Project,” n.d.). There are currently forty-four homeless housing
programs in the Nashville metro area. While most of these are shelters, there are a few that are
set up to help people find affordable housing in the community. Setting up more shelters
4
Geography Project Plan Assignment
locations is important with the number of homeless people in Nashville. Even though there are
a lot of shelters, there still is not enough room to help every single person living on the street.
Also, more food programs are extremely important considering that one food bank is not
enough for the amount of homeless people in the area.
Location Relevance
Most of Nashville’s homeless population resides in homeless camps under bridges and in
wooded areas in the downtown area. There are also multiple camps in the surrounding suburbs
including Hermitage and Antioch. The future food banks would be centered in the downtown
area to have a relative location and easy access, but I would include what we call food trucks to
drive to the suburbs once a day to give out food to the homeless in these areas as well. This will
give the homeless in the suburbs easier access to food and water. I would also build more
homeless shelters in the suburbs along with the downtown area. This way the homeless living
in tents in the suburbs have some where safe to go when it is too hot or too cold downtown.
Place Relevance
Nashville Tennessee is a very diverse city. Within the city there are a variety of race,
ethnicities, religions, cultures, and values. Nashville is considered to be part of the bible belt in
the United States. In Nashville there are a total of six hundred and ten churches and over two
thousand one hundred and sixty-three religious’ organizations. Nashville is also in what the
country calls the Volunteer State. This is a community that likes to come together and help
others. Through all the religious outsources in Nashville it is a great starting point to getting the
homeless in safe places to sleep at night including additional shelters and churches. Having
shelters and food banks spread across the downtown and suburb areas would give the
5
Geography Project Plan Assignment
homeless easy access and more options. I think it is also important to not but a limit on how
many nights one can stay. If we can house and feed millions of incarcerated criminals then we
can house and feed the thousands of homeless people.
Movement Relevance
My mission will include building shelters and food banks, which its achievable. Nashville
may be limited to public transportation, but Nashville does have a bus system and a train.
While these do cost money and can be a problem for the homeless community Nashville is
relatively walkable once someone is in the downtown area. According to a study, Nashville is
the second most walkable city in the U.S., with tourists taking approximately thirty-three
minutes to walk around the main areas of Nashville (“Nashville ranks among the best walkable
cities for tourist: Study,” 2024). Placing multiple shelters and food banks around the city would
be amazing since it is walkable, but this way they do not get over crowed since the homeless
population is spread throughout the city.
Human-Environmental Interaction Relevance
With Nashville being in the south is gets hot during the summer. But with that being
said Nashville also has cold winters. In the summer the average high is 90° with higher
temperatures as well. During the winter the average temperature is 30° but with lower
temperature days. These weather conditions are too rough for anyone to be out on the streets
without food or water or appropriate clothing or blankets.
Budget
Budgeting for the plan has two goals. Long-term and short-term. Long-terms goal
would be staffing for the shelters and food banks, getting, and keeping the homeless off the
6
Geography Project Plan Assignment
street, and finding them permanent housing. If some churches would volunteer for sheltering
then the budget would decrease. Having volunteers, students, unpaid internships, and retirees
would benefit in bringing down the budget as well. Another long-term goal would be getting
the community to donate nonperishable foods such as can goods. With donations of food, it
would bring down the cost of food products need to give to the homeless. A short-term goal
would be to build at least four shelters around the Nashville area. These shelters need to be at
least four thousand square feet. This alone can cost upwards for four million dollars.
Summary
The homeless population is growing at a rapid pace due to the rise in housing cost.
Bring down housing cost along with inflation, would drastically decline the amount of homeless
people in Nashville and the country. Again, housing is a human right now a luxury and as a
community everyone should come together and help the people that are struggling to help
themselves. More shelters and food banks are the key to helping the homelessness issue in
Nashville and the county.
7
Geography Project Plan Assignment
References
The Nashville Food Project. (n.d.). Hands On Nashville. https://www.hon.org/organization/
Nashville ranks among the best walkable cities for tourists: Study. (2024, April 21). WKRN News
2. https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/nashville-ranks-among-
one-of-the-best-walkable-cities-for-tourists-study
Nashville’s chronic homelessness problem rises dramatically, moves up with cost of living. (2024, May
14). Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/media/nashvilles-chronic-
homelessness-problem-rises-dramatically-moves-up-cost-living
Reasons for homelessness. (n.d.).
Nashville.gov. https://www.nashville.gov/departments/office-homeless-
services/about-homelessness
What are the four types of homelessness? (2024, February 14). Comic Relief —
Home. https://www.comicrelief.org/posts/what-are-the-four-types-of-
homelessness
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
