I’m surprised by the differences in the ways that homelessness and homeless people are treated. In the past year, I’ve become acutely aware of the visible homeless in the cities that I’m in. Over the past year, I’ve observed the way the homeless are treated in Atlanta, Nashville and San Francisco.

In San Francisco, the homeless are mostly quiet as they lay on any available surface (even the front lawn and steps of City Hall). Based on what I saw and heard while I was there, San Francisco has done a lot to make homeless people feel… comfortable. As I wandered around the city I saw homeless shelters and soup kitchens everywhere. I was impressed that there were so many resources available for the homeless population.

Nashville’s homeless fit the stereotype that you expect to see in “show biz” cities. Many of the homeless were performers in some way. The majority were musicians of some sort; the streets were alive with the sounds of the homeless playing guitars, harmonicas, trumpets and saxophones and singing the blues. One man had a dog that did tricks; he had a box set up for money that he said would feed him and his dog.  I’m sure I gave away 10 or 20 dollars in one day to various folks. When I peeked in the buckets that the enterprising musicians had situated near them as they played, I saw that I wasn’t the only one giving money that weekend.

Nashville’s downtown is a bustling place teeming with restaurants, bars, play houses, concert venues, ball fields, convention centers, but not one shelter that I could see. I wasn’t in Nashville long enough to know what kind of homeless resources the city, church and non-profit communities allocate to the homeless. I wondered where the homeless went after all the tourists went back to their hotels and the bars closed. I was consoled by the notion that us tourists (at least on the weekend) were doing a decent job of keeping a modicum of the homeless fed and paid.

In Atlanta, where I live, I see homeless people every day. From the fourth floor of my downtown office building I can see tent cities under the I-20 and I-75 overpasses, and when I walk around the block, I pass at least a couple of churches that allow homeless people to hang out on their front steps. I assume that these churches have some services for downtown’s homeless, but I’ve been unable to find any signs to verify this.

In the area around the historic Underground, homeless people lay all around. None of the business owners or their security can do much to stop them, since it’s a public mall. Nearby, in front of and around the State Department of Human Resources, I’ve come across some the most aggressive, mean and obviously mentally ill homeless people in the city.

Before Christmas, I researched downtown homeless shelters for a homeless lady I befriended near my job.  In my research I was only able to locate one downtown men’s shelter and the one food pantry, both of which struggle with staying open. Downtown is home to at least one half-way house. I’ve wondered as I pass it sometimes, how many of those inhabitants end up back on the streets.

I’m appalled by the lack of resources for homeless people in Atlanta, especially in the midst of Atlanta’s City Hall, the Capital and the bulk of state government.  I feel that this neglect has to be in intentional, as I know that the mayor and the state’s congresspeople have to see the homeless poor that call downtown Atlanta home, just as I do.