The city of Memphis has a poverty rate of 22.6%. Child poverty stands at 36.3%. (University of Memphis.) That means more than one in three children in Memphis is growing up in poverty.

Among large metropolitan areas with populations over one million, Memphis ranks first in child poverty (University of Memphis.) These are not just numbers — they are children in classrooms, in shelters, and in families doing everything they can to stay together.

Poverty in Memphis disproportionately affects Black and Latino families. The poverty rate for Black Memphians is 27.1% and 26.0% for Hispanic and Latino residents, compared to 8.9% for white residents. (University of Memphis)

Generational poverty — defined as a family living in poverty for more than two generations — is a significant driver of family houselessness in Memphis. Parents who want to build a better life for their children often lack access to the tools, systems, and support networks necessary to do so.

The 2023 Point-in-Time Count recorded 1,292 people experiencing homelessness in Memphis and Shelby County — 1,172 sheltered and 165 unsheltered. (Memphis Flyer)

Of that total count, 33% were families experiencing homelessness. (WMC Action News 5) Families — parents and children — make up a significant share of the unhoused population in this city, yet they are often the least visible.

According to the Community Alliance for the Homeless, approximately 130 families sleep in shelters or uninhabitable places each night in Memphis. An unknown number of additional families are staying with relatives or in extended-stay motels Dorothy Day House — hidden from official counts, but no less in need.

When families lose their housing, most shelter options force them apart. Men are sent to one facility. Women, girls, and young children to another. Parents of teenage sons often face an impossible choice: place their boys in foster care or keep the family together on the street.

Dorothy Day House was founded specifically to close that gap. We are the only shelter in Shelby County that accepts whole families regardless of composition — including married couples, single mothers with teenage sons, grandparents raising grandchildren, and women in late pregnancy — with no residency requirement and no 30-day limit on stays.

The need has never been greater. The families are here. So are we.