MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis police said the city has about 20 more pedestrian deaths compared to this time in 2021.
The latest pedestrian killed Sunday night at Airways near Park is again shining a light on combating one component of the issue: homeless Memphians on the street without permanent shelter. Advocates for the unhoused said it intensified their ongoing mission to build more shelter space and provide other resources.
"Coming home from the grocery store on my way home and I just see his body in the middle of the street," Britney Thornton said.
It didn't take long for Thornton to learn that Memphis' latest pedestrian death was a man she knew well: a homeless man in his thirties named Justin.
"He's known both to me and the community and has a social network that he was plugged into," Thornton said.
The Shelby County Commissioner said Justin often stayed at the shelter JUICE Orange Mound, in operation last year, just around the corner from Sunday's deadly crash.
"You have a community that is unsupported clearly and it's manifesting in a very traumatic way," Thornton added.
Zoning issues forced JUICE Orange Mound to close earlier this year as a homeless shelter. Now Thornton is working with partners to reopen this building into a resource center for the unhoused and eventually open pods as 90-day transitional housing.
"It's very frustrating because we've made a clear case that this community exists and is unsupported so rather than wait until the next person dies we want to be proactive to get our phase two operations up and open," Thornton said.
From her seat on the Shelby County Commission, Thornton is pushing for more state funding for the area's homeless and the appointment of a new position solely focused on the issue.
"Who do we hold accountable when it comes to service for the homeless community in the city and the county? There's not a single person that's picking that up as a responsibility," Thornton added.
She said all the efforts are important in decentralizing where the unhoused can be helped and limit deadly pedestrian scenes such as the one Sunday.
"It's difficult to know it's Justin yesterday, and it could be someone else today, it could be someone else tomorrow. If we don't support this community, there's a lot of potential tragedy to happen if we overlook the needs of the people here," Thornton added.