“In Memphis, there are hundreds of homeless children. They bounce from shelters to hotels to relatives’ homes to the street. They sleep in cars and
outside restaurants and under bus stops. Many of them attend school but struggle to focus, unsure of what they’ll eat or where they’ll sleep when the evening comes.”

Congregational shelter is the core mission of Room in the Inn, Anderson said, and the model is simple: something to eat, somewhere to sleep, and someone to talk to. That simplicity is key to its effectiveness.
“It’s not rocket science; it’s hospitality,” Anderson said. “We believe Jesus calls us to treat our fellow humans with dignity and respect. That’s what we do.”

“[Tracy] remembers the worst of it, when she had cancer and no place to stay… She had her service animal, so wasn’t eligible at the first place her doctor reached out to, but Room in the Inn accepted Logan and Marley. She was able to have her surgery — her fifth in four years — and stay at Room in the Inn while recuperating.”

A law expediting the process for removing a “squatter” from a residential property went into effect Monday, July 1… “I just think this is going to make what is already a crisis a bigger crisis,” Anderson said of the new law.

WKNO, The SPARK, June 2024

Host Jeremy C. Park interviews Reverend Lisa Anderson, Executive Director of Room in the Inn – Memphis as part of The SPARK’s focus on “Caring for the Wellbeing and Welfare of Others.”

Breakfast For Dinner Yields Hope For The Unhoused: All the fixings of breakfast, for dinner – This annual fundraiser is flipping things around to create a safe place for Memphians!

“But very early, we were seeing people were that were ill, too ill really to be going to sleep on a cot or a mattress at a church, people who had had surgeries, outpatient surgeries, people who had pneumonia, people who had chronic illnesses, like cancer, things that weren’t going to get better … “So, we started planning, thinking about a recuperative care center for these people very early on. And so that’s what led us to have this space now.”

Room In The Inn hosted a vigil on Thursday night at Memphis’ First Presbyterian Church in remembrance of the members of the city’s homeless community who died in the last year.

“No insurance, no income, little educational opportunities, poor access to healthcare, poor access to transportation all impact the journey into and out of homelessness. Poverty is a prison, and often the sentence is served out on the streets, homeless.”

Meanwhile in Memphis Podcast, Nov. 2023

“We feel a little bit urgent about getting congregations to understand that this is not just a service opportunity, this is a lifesaving opportunity,” Anderson said. “This is keeping children and women and vulnerable men in a place of safety during a time that it is very unsafe to be on the street.”

Daily Memphian: The Sidebar Podcast, Apr. 2023

Rev. Lisa Anderson shares about Room in the Inn’s three unique programs and the upcoming Breakfast for Dinner fundraiser happening April 29.

With dangerously cold temperatures pushing into parts of the Mid-South, Room in the Inn is stepping up in preparation ahead of this Christmas cold freeze.

The inn has locked arms with several congregations, such as Calvary Episcopal Church in the heart of Downtown, to house and feed the homeless ahead of the arctic blast.

WREG News Channel 3, May 2022

Memphis is near the top of the list for eviction rates among U.S. cities and that’s contributed to a spike in homelessness during the pandemic. The challenges of the unhoused get even bigger when one is hospitalized: what if they’re discharged and have nowhere to go? That’s where ‘Room in the Inn-Memphis’ steps in…

“They make it so there’s nothing to hinder you from reaching a goal you want to reach,” Perkins said. “They’ve got everything put in stone for you. You’ve just got to accept it. They’re handing it to you on a silver platter. You either take it or you don’t. I look at it as a blessing.”

Forever Ready Productions, April 2021

It’s your monthly dose of positivity right here on our Facebook and YouTube channels. This month we’ve got Lisa Anderson with Room In The Inn Memphis on LIVE to talk more about their vision for their new location. Find out how you can help support their efforts, especially now.

CityCurrent Radio Show, April 2021

Host Andrew Bartolotta talks with Room In The Inn – Memphis’s Director of Programming, Whitney Brown, who shares about their mission to shelter those experiencing homelessness in a safe environment of hospitality.

On both cold winter nights or blazing hot summer days, Room in the Inn workers are waiting by their phones for a call. The volunteers from all walks of life have been trained in assisting individuals experiencing homelessness, and with every call they have one goal in mind: How can we get a roof over this person’s head?

To run an entirely different sort of check-in process, the four-person staff of the Room in the Inn nonprofit uses space at the church, putting dozens of people in beds, every night. Operating on the basis of “holy hospitality,” the group works with 56 faith-based organizations across Shelby County to host up to 15 people in each of their places of worship on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis.

Mark Billingsley, The Chairman’s Perspective, Dec. 2019

On this episode Shelby County Board of Commissioners Chairman, Mark Billingsley discusses: Homelessness in Shelby County with Alise Davis, Chair of the Board of Room in the Inn.

Volunteering with RITI is about saying grace, breaking bread together, drawing on the restorative power of stillness, and spending time with others around a dinner table on a Sunday evening.

Women and families can come to the shelters during the day, but are being referred to Room In the Inn or the library for overnight accommodations. Cold temperatures are an inconvenience for most people, Carpenter said, but for the homeless, “it’s deadly.”

On Thursday in Downtown, several men lined up to see if they might win a lottery to stay the night at Room in the Inn, a program that provides overnight housing in the winter with help from local congregations. Whitney Brown, program and outreach director at the ministry, came outside to announce how many spots were left. There was one.

There is more Room in the Inn some nights than others. The recent cold snap hasn’t helped with temperatures dipping below freezing every night for the past week. Monday night, 59 people asked for shelter from temperatures in the mid-teens. Two congregations had room for 19 women and seven men.

The homeless situation in Memphis is not a new one. While the local community provides several shelters that help homeless people, often the need is too great. That’s the need Room In The Inn seeks to fill.