Q&A: PATHE’s Jacqueline Sims

Longtime housing and transit advocate discusses finding truth

BY HANNAH HERNER

After spending 2020 advocating against evictions during the pandemic and other crises, in 2021 the People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing and Employment (PATHE) is in review mode. At the end of March, the organization launched a series of town halls and seminars as part of a “six month search for the Whole Truth, where Hindsight becomes 20/20, Insight comes from the Community, and Foresight guides the PATHE forward.”

Veteran activist and director of PATHE Jacqueline Sims grew up in Philadelphia where public transit was more robust than here in Nashville. She explains that when you’re advocating for opportunities in transit or housing or employment, you’ll need improvement in another.

Can you tell me about why you chose to focus on the truth and reconciliation seminars this year?

I believe that truth is very basic, to getting resolution for many issues, especially for issues centered around what I would call equity and justice issues. It took me to get to my 50s to really understand a little bit of truth about some difficult issues. But I was way on the other side of 50, before I'd get to really have truth speak to me. So I made it my mission to choose not to remain ignorant, and to go digging for truth.

That's why it's so important to me to shape a campaign around housing. And for me, housing and transportation go hand in hand, learning that you shouldn’t be having discussions about housing absent transportation, because transportation is about more than congestion. It's about quality of life for people who are transit dependent first, then you can do all the other nice things you want to do, all the bells and whistles and shiny objects around transportation. But first we must provide options, good options for people who need it every day to sustain their lives.

What would you say is the biggest focus now when it comes to making changes in the transportation system?

We need as many routes as we can possibly have. We don't need to be cutting any routes, we need to be increasing routes. And we need to increase routes in the rural part of Davidson County, because the core is becoming less and less affordable and people are being displaced out in the outskirts of the county where there's just not adequate transit or other resources.

A lot of our work has been centered in the housing crisis, and the city doesn't seem to understand what a crisis means. But the inadequacy of really good transportation, also is pretty critical in Davidson County.

I know that you've done some work with outreach for people experiencing homelessness. How do you see transportation playing into them trying to get out of living on the streets?

The first thing that comes to my mind is where is more affordable housing going to be for our unhoused residents? And it's unfortunate that many of them need the services that are available in the urban core. But imagine a place to dwell, that is even remotely affordable. At the rate that real estate is appreciating in Davidson County, it's going to be in the outer regions. The real estate in the urban cores, the price tags on it are just ridiculous, and they're not going to get lower, I think they're just going to continue to get higher as the demand increases.

So we're going to have to look for more resources in the outskirts, as well as more dwellings and probably concentrated dwellings.

An issue that PATHE brings up is the possibility of people losing their jobs because of transportation, too.

I have the luxury of a car and plenty of family members who also have cars. So transportation is not an issue for me. But if I had to go to a place, I live right off of Charlotte, I can just walk for half a block and the bus will be there. But if I had to walk many blocks, that would be very difficult for me. And it may require that I, I might not be able to work anymore. If a bus isn't able to return me home after work, I might not be able to work anymore, because either they may have decreased the level of services and the bus doesn't run that late, or it just doesn't run in proximity to where I live.

And if you're a low wage worker, you can't afford to be Ubering and Lyfting yourself, you know, around on a daily basis. That's not affordable. That's not sustainable. I couldn't do it. I make a decent living. That would really eat a hole in my budget if I had to do that.

What do you think it’ll take to make the changes PATHE works toward?

The first thing it's going to take is having people who make decisions who give a damn. That's the first thing it's going to take. We see people who are unhoused, but we don't see them. They become almost invisible to far too many people who live in Nashville, and I don't think a lot of the people who make decisions see them as viable human beings, who it's important that we care for them. The Bible says that poor people will always be with us. So they're not going away. So it's up to us to make decisions about what are we going to do about that?

Because we live in a cheap consumer, material-driven society where it's far too much self absorption, preoccupation with one's own happiness and personal satisfactions that we're not inclined to care for our neighbor the way we should. And that's truly an indictment on our humanity.

Anything else that you want to add?

I hope as an organization, that PATHE can build enough of an infrastructure and provide those who want to know the truth, who want to understand why we're in the thick of it that we're in. I hope that we can uncover enough people who really do care about who is our neighbor to make those who make decisions in this city a little uncomfortable.