Special Feature: Interview with Ryan Lampa of People Loving Nashville

Hey, everyone! I have been dealing with a lot while we are entering the fall season. I got a job as a mental health technician at the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, my boyfriend and I are looking into apartment hunting as well as attempting to become more active in assisting the unhoused community in Nashville, Tennessee, I have a few more novel and blog projects coming up, and the reason why I've been so quiet recently is because I got sick and had to be hospitalized briefly due to another cellulitus infection in my left foot and ankle which had temporarily rendered me immobile. I am feeling a lot better now thanks to the love and support of my family, friends, and significant other, and also pushing myself physically little by little. Since the winter season is not too far around the corner and my last blog was related to assisting the unhoused community, I decided to come up with a goal. This goal is to feature different unhoused outreach organizations to bring more awareness to the unhoused community before the winter season starts so we have more assistance to help in outreach plans. I was fortunate to be able to have support in this goal from different organizations across the Nashville Davidson county area. This special feature is dedicated to People Loving Nashville, an organization that has been serving the unhoused community devotedly since 2008. I used to frequent their gatherings and outreach events for a few years and now I go visit to see old friends and meet new people. I got to sit down with People Loving Nashville's founder, Ryan Lampa, to learn more about how People Loving Nashville has helped the unhoused community over the years.

Ryan Lampa has lived in Nashville for twenty years and a fun fact about him is that he enjoys fly fishing. Ryan discovered this was his calling years ago when he learned about two members of the unhoused community living in an abandoned home behind his house. “I had gotten to know these gentlemen and learned their stories, and I was inspired to help them. So over time I had brought them coffee and little things here and there, and while that was going on I was starting to come up with ideas to help them. One day I had suggested a few of these ideas and they started to become offended. I meant no offense, so I asked how this offended them, they told me they just appreciated my friendship. As a Christian, I had remembered that we are called to feed the hungry and that's when a few friends and I decided that to assist the unhoused community, we were going to start making meals to help feed them.” People Loving Nashville started to give out food to the unhoused community around Thanksgiving in 2008. “We knew there were some folks downtown and we didn't want to be a nonprofit or anything, we just wanted to help our community and feed the hungry. So we set up a budget system and created meals. When we passed out the food to the folks downtown, we gave out five different meals and learned five different stories. This inspired us to continue to assist the unhoused community. Our once a month gatherings turned into once a week, assistance with clothing and hygiene came shortly after, we also began to partner up with different organizations and agencies to provide different outreach resources to the unhoused community.” One of the programs that People Loving Nashville has begun recently is a program that expunges different misdemeanor charges. “What this program does is assist people with different criminal charges by removing those charges from their record so they can get into different employment and housing agencies, things that they were unable to do before due to their criminal background. So we get their information and take their records and present it to a local judicial branch, and what the judge will do is meet with the person and discuss expunging the charges.”

Any organization starting up always has some difficulties, Ryan explained that People Loving Nashville's main difficulty was financial support. “Financial support was hard to come by at first, but soon we gained more donations and more volunteers and got more people inspired to help. Another thing that is always hard for our organization is when we lose people on the streets. Different members of the community have health problems, struggle with substances, or even pass away from old age. It's always devastating to learn that someone you helped and cared so much for has passed away.” One of those people who shared a bond with People Loving Nashville's organization who Ryan fondly remembers is Steven, also known as “Chi Chi,” who unfortunately passed away over the summer. “Steven was so enthusiastic about our organization and what we did for the community. Even after Steven got into housing, Steven would come volunteer by helping pass out food and packaging meals, Steven would also assist us in our volunteer training. Steven would always attend every feeding and inform anyone hungry to attend.” Steven would also eventually encourage me to join the Nashville Youth Action Board which I am forever grateful for as well as their friendship. Ryan says that the biggest project that People Loving Nashville has ever had was creating their outreach team. “Bringing a staff of ten people to full time and creating our outreach team was a huge project for us. It definitely took a lot of planning.”

Ryan says People Loving Nashville receives most of their inspiration from the Bible and the many people they serve in the unhoused community. However, due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, it made it somewhat difficult for People Loving Nashville to accomplish giving the unhoused community the assistance they needed. “There were different roadblocks with Covid-19 with socialization and all that but we continue to regulate different precautions at our gatherings so we are still able to help those in need.” When it came to thanking others who have helped People Loving Nashville, Ryan especially wanted to give credit to all the volunteers and the members of the unhoused community. “We are extremely grateful to our volunteers as well as the members of the unhoused community who we serve each day. Also, a huge thank you to Belmont Church, Anchor Investments and Vineyard Nashville who have generously donated their spaces to us which allowed us to make all these meals for the unhoused and continue to serve them” When it comes to advice on homeless outreach and wanting to help those in need, Ryan had this to say: “Know what you want to do to help and get involved within your community. Also, go out and experience work and events done by other organizations, you can always learn something new.” In response to what the city of Nashville can do as well as what other cities can do nationally to help the unhoused communities, Ryan says communication is key. “Cities should work on communication between agencies who work with the unhoused. Communication will help city governments find gaps within services offered and find out why they exist, which would prompt different solutions to them and would help improve them. Another thing that is important is organizations teaming up and helping together, every organization could learn so much from each other and bring in so much passion for helping others. Housing cures homelessness. There is a massive housing crisis in our nation, we need better regulation of developments and more communication from the streets to the mayors office as well.”

If you would like to get involved with People Loving Nashville, you can donate, volunteer at feedings and outreach days, which you can find more information at Peoplelovingnashville.com . If you would like to receive services from People Loving Nashville, Ryan encourages all those in need to attend their weekly feedings at the War Memorial Plaza on Monday nights from 6 pm to 8:30 pm. You can talk to volunteers and different outreach coordinators about different types of services offered. I would personally like to thank Ryan and People Loving Nashville for giving me this opportunity as well as all they do for the city of Nashville. My next feature will focus on Rychus Rydz Inc, speaking with their CEO, Takiyah Middleton, about how their organization loves to give back to the Nashville community and how everyone deserves a second chance. Happy Reading!

-Melanie Lane