Yesterday afternoon I made my way down Madison Ave. to head towards the river for a run. A woman sitting on concrete planter asked if I had any cash for some food – I didn’t. She wanted to know where I was from, I told her I live here in Memphis and she said ohh, well you have an accent. I said I was from the Philly area. Not more than 15 steps after leaving this brief conversation a guy approached and gave me a fist bump. He was talking with two other guys in the middle of Main St. He too asked if I had any money so that he could eat. I told him I didn’t carry any cash on me. He let me know that the place on the corner took cards, and I clarified that I didn’t have anything on my other than my keys and my phone. He asked if I had a payment app on my phone… I had to admire his persistence. I don’t currently have a card loaded on to my phone. He said he’s homeless and hungry – the only response I could give was a heartfelt apology as I wished him luck in getting something to eat – he said maybe I can come back after my run.
Getting hit up for money here in Memphis is nothing new. I see and talk to homeless people almost every day. Back in Bucks County, I worked in the homelessness system as part of a coalition dedicated to ending homelessness. I believe in supporting the agencies that are trying to reduce and eliminate homelessness. I tend not to give cash out, but I have bought food for people. I don’t carry cash on me because I hate lying to people – it’s hard to do that when you’re looking them in the eye. I could do what most people do which is to not make eye contact or not stop to talk, but I figure the least I can do is acknowledge their need and their presence. Yesterday was different only because these were people I hadn’t seen before, there were more of them, and they were more persistent in their requests. On my way back from my run, I got hit up two more times. Once by a guy I see hanging around on one of the corners always trying to recommend a good restaurant. The other time was buy the same guy from before my run.
Memphis is one of the poorest cities in the country. In 2018 it dropped from being the poorest city in the country to being the second poorest city in the country. It has a poverty rate of about 27% and a childhood poverty rate of close to 45%. The preliminary numbers from the most recent point-in-time count (a one day snapshot of homelessness) shows that there are close to 1,000 people living in shelters and another 100 people who are without shelter. Helping people out of homelessness is challenging work. Many have mental health issues, health issues, disability issues, addiction issues, etc. etc. Homelessness itself is a cause of many issues. I’m not naive enough to think a simple redistribution of wealth and resources would solve the problem, but I do think we need to do better than we’re currently doing. Just like when some people go in to a pet store and want to rescue all of the pets, I often wish I could just buy everyone a house.
When I first moved to Memphis, I looked (online) at a number of different houses and neighborhoods for myself. Property can be pretty cheap here. There are also a lot of abandoned properties in the city. There are a lot of houses for under $50k. For a number of years, I’ve been trying to figure out how to put my limited assets to use for the homeless or for people really struggling to get by. It seems (and this is just perception) that there is a shortage of compassionate landlords who are willing to park their money in a property and accept minimal profit margins in order to help people get on their feet. I often considered trying to get involved in that type of real estate.
There’s a guy here in town, Ken, who I believe works in investment banking or something like that. I met him at a concert my first weekend here. He was wearing a hat with the logo of the organization I had just taken a job with, and I used that as a way to introduce myself. A few weeks later, he and I grabbed coffee and talked about music and my job and the growth of the city. I told him it all seemed so vibrant – that there were a lot of development projects and that the city seemed to be ready to bust out of it’s decades-long reputation of poverty and crime. I said I’d love to get involved in its growth but I’m not exactly in a financial position to do much. His response was that I had house money, but not investment money. His blunt assessment, while accurate, stung a bit. It was a reminder that even a person of modest privilege (someone with house money) who might want to shape the city for people less fortunate can’t compete with those who have investment money. This is how the world works.
I struggle to understand why we can’t make better progress on things like poverty and homelessness. I struggle with the gap between those who have quite a lot and those who have so little. I suppose one reason I don’t have investment money is that even if I did, I’d probably give it away – which, if I remember correctly, is a core argument in the book The Most Good You Can Do – in which the author suggests that people who have the ability to do so should earn a lot of money and give it away. Use your smarts and talents to earn money for other people.
I still spend time thinking about crazy ways to help people out of poverty or ways to use my talents to earn money to help others, though I’m a little less inclined to do it through real estate. Today I started reading Matthew Desmond’s Evicted. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m only just getting to the book now – it’s been out for four or five years. I’ve avoided it because I thought it was going to be overly academic like the book Capital that I started and didn’t get far in. So far, Desmond’s book is pretty great. He’s chronicling real-life stories of landlords and tenants in Milwaukee. It highlights many of the struggles of deep poverty (some people living on $2 a day after rent and housing costs). It touches on why cities and welfare programs have failed their most vulnerable. I’m only a few short chapters in to the book but very quickly recognizing that if I’m going to help it’s probably going to have to be in a different way than what I’ve thought I might do. Being a compassionate landlord is not for the faint of heart.
I don’t have much. I don’t really want or need much. I would like to have investment type money – enough to guarantee my security while also helping others. This is where my head has been these last few days as I look at my current community and research my soon-to-be new community. What else can I do to help?