About us
Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality (H.O.P.E.) is an organization whose members are exclusively people who are currently experiencing or have formerly experienced homelessness.
We meet on the first Wednesday of every month from 4:00 - 5:00pm at Community Alliance for the Homeless (44 N 2nd St # 302, Memphis, TN 38103). |
"The Homeless people don't have a lobby. So they're not going to be down at City Hall and the legislature.”
- memphis mayor ac wharton
Those were the words spoken by Memphis Mayor AC Wharton while giving a speech on the need for Ten Year Plan To End Homelessness in April of 2010. The Mayor was correct; people who are experiencing homelessness did not have a lobby or organization whose chief priority was to ensure that the needs of this constituency were being heard loud and clear by our elected officials. That was true until now.
H.O.P.E. is the name of a Mid-South Peace and Justice Center sponsored organization whose members are exclusively people who are currently or have formerly experienced homelessness. For over a year now, H.O.P.E. has been organizing and agitating around the issues that are a priority to the homeless community.
VISIONH.O.P.E. envisions a society that is cooperative and inclusive, in which the needs of all people are valued over the profit of a few. We believe in an end to homelessness and the systemic causes of poverty, because safe, clean, accessible, and affordable housing should be a right-not a privilege! We see the possibility of a world where there are good jobs available to all, where there is equal treatment under the law, and there is dignity and understanding for each person’s individual struggle.
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members
For more information, please contact Tamara Hendrix: (901) 254-5964, [email protected]