Songs about homelessness and gentrification.

Here are a few songs that address injustice, homelessness, poverty, and gentrification...

Living Colour singing about gentrification...

Whereas this song stems out of New York City's East Village, it speaks to the lasting and traumatic effects of gentrification everywhere. This song is extremely relevant because I have seen the painful consequences of gentrification in Uptown, causing me to address and mourn over it repeatedly on this blog: see Uptown: Choose Love

"Open Letter (To A Landlord)"

Now you can tear a building down

But you can't erase a memory

These houses may look all run down

But they have a value you can't see...

This is my neighborhood

This is where I come from

I call this place my home

You call this place a slum

You want to run all the people out

This what you're all about

Treat poor people just like trash

Turn around and make big cash

Prophets of Rage singing about tent cities, homelessness and inequality...

“‘Living on the 110’ is a song that speaks to the issue of homelessness,” Morello said in a statement. “The 110 is a freeway in Los Angeles and living beneath it are thousands of homeless people. Bentleys and Rolls Royces roaring by are literally driving on top of the poor and their makeshift homes, a picture perfect analogy for the grotesque economic inequality that plagues our times.”

"Living on the 110"

Living on the 110

Four sharing one tent

Can't afford no rent

Forgotten by the government

Feels like a life time

Stuck and struck down

Waiting for the right time

Running out of luck now

And it's damn shame

See it from the fast lane

Living in the jungle

Tent city struggle

You drive by see the family camped out

By the underpass

You got your blinders on

You want to hit the gas

Living on the 110

There's no end to the poverty, stopping me

You pretend there's democracy, hypocrisy

This is the reality

Rage Against The Machine singing Bruce Springsteen's song about injustice, poverty, and homelessness... 
Tom Joad is the protagonist in the realist novel "Grapes of Wrath" - this song encourages us to embrace the spirit of Tom Joad in the face of injustice

"Ghost of Tom Joad"

Men walking 'long the railroad tracks

Going someplace, there's no going back

Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge

Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge

Shelter line stretching 'round the corner

Welcome to the new world order

Families sleeping in the cars in the southwest

No home, no job, no peace, no rest

Well the highway is alive tonight

But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes

I'm sitting down here in the campfire light

Searching for the ghost of Tom Joad

My friend Glenn Kaiser singing about living on the streets...

The man pictured below is someone I knew personally. He went by Frenchie and blessed many of us in Uptown. He lived outside, was quite fragile and sick until we finally talked him into coming into our shelter. From there, we helped him get an income and he was eventually housed.

A link to Frenchie's story: Rest In Peace Old Buddy

"Cardboard Box"

Once was a husband

Things went south

Had us a home

‘Til we lost our house

Wall Street broker

Trashed our stocks

Economy folded

Livin’ in a cardboard box

All they can see

Are birds of a flock

God have mercy

Get me outta this cardboard box

My friend Jed Brewer leading his song "So Here I Am" at The Bridge. 

This is one of many songs he has written specifically to help encourage those who are struggling with the likes of homelessness, incarceration, and addiction. The Bridge is a Church service that I'm honored to be part of; it happens every Tuesday night on the West Side of Chicago, where they make sure every person (despite anyone's circumstances or pasts) who attends knows they're loved, precious in the sight of God and VIPs in His Kingdom. 

Enjoy! 

Be inspired... 

Go and help those in need.

Love your neighbors

Peace!