MEMPHIS, Tennessee — The Hospitality Hub, an organization that helps people out of homelessness, recently created studios to fill the gap in homeless services in the city.
They are a place to call home, while people get there life in order.
“Only 6% of our shelter beds in the city our designated for women yet they make up 37% of the homeless population so we had to really step our game up,” said the Hub’s Executive Director Kelcey Johnson.
Five brightly colored studios were recently built for those who need shelter until they can find permanent housing.
“What we found is that people who are chronically homeless for the most part don’t get the resources they need because they don’t have access to good case management and that happens because their not staying in shelters,” Johnson said. “They have mental illness or other things that keep them from being able to live in shelters.”
The Hub has already chosen people to live in the studios and plans to build 60 more in 5 to 6 different communities.
At the Hospitality Hotel, workers get women who come from off of the street as well as those who have been evicted. The cost is free.
“I found myself in a situation where I actually lost my career, lost my home and I was divorced,” shared Tamika Redmond, who is a hospitality specialist. “Of all the shelters that I have stayed in this is by far the best one.”
Redmond has been in the shoes of the people she helps daily and was without housing for three years.
“It is not easy whenever you’re going through the situation,” Redmond said. “If you’ve come from something you’ve worked for you’ve earned and then you’ve lost it it’s really hard to feel like the system and people are not against you.”
Johnson said after working with the homeless for 20 years the most difficult part is turning people away.
“Even today I’ve had to say no to women about there’s no shelter for you tonight,” explained Johnson. “Wherever you slept last night can you go back there. It’s a terrible thing to have to tell somebody.”