Joe moved to Nashville for work with his wife. They once lived in Murray, Kentucky. After the loss of a job and the break-up of his marriage, Joe is homeless.
“People think we make tons of money out here holding a sign, that’s not true – we don’t,” he told me. “I gotta go to the bathroom, but they won’t let me use their bathroom because I’m homeless,” Joe said while pointing at McDonalds.
While he may not be a paying customer of the Nolensville Pike restaurant, customers buy him meals from time to time. When I met him, he had just finished eating a Big Mac that a customer bought for him. He was telling me how good it was.