Community Conversations: Homelessness in Williamson County
Pastor Kevin Riggs
By Susan Walden
On Sunday, March 27, 2022 from 3-5 PM Pastor Kevin Riggs from Franklin Community Church and the Williamson County Homeless Alliance will be at the Main branch of the Williamson County Public Library to give a presentation and engage in a community discussion on homelessness.
Pastor Kevin has spent many years working directly with the homeless community in Williamson County. He founded and operates a local men’s group home, helped coordinate hotel stays for people experiencing homelessness throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and has recently opened the first transitional group home in Williamson County. This transitional group home, the John and Joyce McMillen house, provides people with a place to stay for 90 days while they receive services to help them apply and get jobs, request government documents they may not have, and support them as they secure more permanent housing.
Homelessness is often out of direct line of sight in Williamson County, and therefore there may be an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality when it comes to dealing with the issue. The fact remains that as the cost of living increases in Williamson County, and wages are slow to keep up, that housing continues to be a growing concern. An estimated 4% of Williamson County inhabitants live in poverty, with the median rent in 2019 costing $1,500 per month and those costs have only increased since then. Pastor Kevin stated, in an article in The Tennessean last year, that “To live in Williamson County without any help, the livable wage is $30 an hour,” Riggs said. “People get upset talking about $15 an hour. If you’re making $15 an hour for a family of four, you need two adults working full-time.” This is a multi-faceted problem and there are no easy solutions, but we can start by having a community conversation and learn more about the issue, and some ways in which we can make an impact.
Please join us for Community Conversations: Homelessness on Sunday, March 27, 2022 from 3-5 PM in the Meeting Room at the Williamson County Public Library. You can also watch the Facebook livestream of the event by visiting the Library’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wcpltn.
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