Room in the Inn founder Charles Strobel showed how much we can help our homeless neighbors

Every year when the weather dips below freezing, I’m reminded of an event that’s stuck with me for 50 years.  I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating.

My first trip to Nashville was in 1968 to attend David Lipscomb College. After graduation, I was hired as a reporter for WSM-TV. I witnessed scenes that most people could never imagine happening here — riots in the streets, protesting integration of public schools and housing.

A few years later, there were tanks in the streets.

When the federal courts ordered Metro Nashville to integrate, I saw news photographers attacked and beaten with their own cameras.

Worse still, at Christmastime during my first year as a reporter, I was on my way back from Capitol Hill when I heard over my police scanner that someone had died. At the scene, I was told that an elderly Black man had frozen to death.

Days before Christmas and without any heat in his house, he had died pointlessly — cold and alone — during a season of warmth and giving. On my way back to my car, I looked up at the recently built National Life building to see the words “Peace on Earth” shining brightly from its windows. I said to myself, “How could this man freeze to death, a few hundred feet from all that electricity?”

More: At community service, Nashville remembers Charles Strobel first and foremost as a friend

Small gestures to help people who are homeless matter

The abject reality of homelessness is never far from my mind, especially when I recall that incident.  It’s disturbing how fragile “peace on earth” can become. It’s too easy to forget that there are people suffering right here.

It isn’t just the grand gestures that make a difference. For most of my adult life, I’ve tried to tip wait staff as high as I am able when I dine in a restaurant or pick up an order.  One friend gives the largest dollar bill she has on hand to every Salvation Army bell ringer she sees.

Most often it’s just a $1 or $5 dollar bill, but every so often, it’s a solid $20. It’s her quiet way to honor her late father, who admired the Salvation Army’s mission more than all other organizations.

Small gestures like these do make an impact.  We can’t all donate our life savings or bequeath an estate to a worthy group, and God bless those people who can and do so.  But we can all help our fellow human beings in need.

Father Charles Strobel changed lives for the better

One of Nashville’s greatest examples of helping others is the late Father Charles Strobel, who founded the Room in the Inn program nearly 40 years ago.  He began with his congregation at Holy Name Catholic Church, when he opened his doors to homeless people who were sleeping in their cars in the church parking lot.

The idea took root, and Room in the Inn first began in 1985 with four other founding churches, including Holy Name and Otter Creek Church of Christ.  Helping those in need was put into action that night by Father Strobel, and his program has grown to include 200 participating congregations.

A wonderful program to help others — yet the percentage of participating churches always disturbs me.  Room in the Inn has 200 congregations helping, yet the U.S. Religion Census 2020 report shows that Nashville has nearly 1,000 religious congregations.

Just imagine if Room in the Inn was supported by more than 20% of Nashville’s churches.  That simple upward tick might very well end homelessness here. It certainly would help thousands more in need.

Now that we are in 2024, think of something small you can do to help others. Donate canned goods to a food drive. Serve a meal at the Rescue Mission or at your local house of worship. It’s not often that the contrast of want and need is as stark as I witnessed in the 1970s.

I pray that it doesn’t take such an experience to wake you up to the importance of helping others. In the words of Father Strobel when interviewed by The Tennessean a few years ago, “We don’t know how to solve the problems of justice, but at least we can say to people here, ‘You are worthy.’”

Steve Brumfield is an expert in the communications and public relations industries and is the owner of The Brumfield Group in Brentwood.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Homelessness in Nashville: Help our neighbors like Charles Strobel did