Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public spaces, even if the city doesn’t have enough shelter beds. With more people living unhoused than ever in America, and governments struggling to help, providing a little help often falls to people who are willing to do the work themselves. Salvation South editor Chuck Reece has some thoughts about such good samaritans.

Unhoused man asleep
Credit: Wikipedia

TRANSCRIPT:

I like a morning walk. I have a loop — a little over 2 miles — I’ve come to know intimately. How a particular stand of crape myrtles blooms in a deep scarlet in the summertime. How the crowd at the local coffee shop is quite small when I leave my house, then doubles by the time I return. The changing colors of nature and the movement of my neighborhood’s people are familiar to me — and ever so pleasant.

But earlier this week, I encountered something unfamiliar. As I rounded the corner about two blocks from my house, I looked ahead and found a frail woman lying on the sidewalk. An overcoat covered her body, and some clothing was balled up under her head. For a pillow.

It was the sort of bed no one should have to sleep in.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that last year, more Americans than ever had no place to live. More than 650,000 people. More than half of those live in the nation’s 50 largest cities, like Atlanta, where the studio in which I’m talking to you sits.

The minute I got home, I called to find help for that woman and discovered many of my neighbors had done the same. And help arrived soon after. And I was reminded of a story that Salvation South, the online magazine I edit, had published not long before, about a woman in Atlanta named Sherri McCoy. Southerners like Sherri and me, who live in big cities, encounter unhoused people with heart-rending regularity. But too few of us do what Sherri does, which is to take it upon herself to give them care and comfort.

For several years now, Sherri McCoy has spent her days taking food and supplies to folks who have no place to live. She calls her little nonprofit organization Blessing Bags of Warmth for the Homeless. She helps unhoused families find transitional housing: places where they’ll have roofs over their heads as they work to find permanent homes.

I have another pair of friends, Johnathon and Jessica Kelso, who have dedicated their lives to providing temporary shelter to people who need it. Their nonprofit, called The Porter Gate, sometimes does what Sherri does, footing the bill for temporary housing out of their own pockets. Sometimes, they even welcome people into their own home for a few nights.

When I went to visit Johnathon and Jessica a few months ago, he told me, “What most of these people need is just a few days to rest.”

The woman I saw on my walk needed that — a place to rest. But one was not handy, so she laid down where she was, in the very spot where her energy gave out.

Our nation fails consistently to take care of the least of our brothers and sisters. But good samaritans, saints really, walk among us. I expect some walk in your neighborhood, too. Find them, if you can, and offer a helping hand.

Come see us at SalvationSouth.com, where we’re always happy to tell the stories of folks who love their neighbors as they love themselves.

Salvation South editor Chuck Reece comments on Southern culture and values in a weekly segment that airs Fridays at 7:45 a.m. during Morning Edition and 4:44 p.m. during All Things Considered on GPB Radio. Salvation South Deluxe is a series of longer Salvation South episodes which tell deeper stories of the Southern experience through the unique voices that live it. You can also find them here at GPB.org/Salvation-South and wherever you get your podcasts.