Georgia Session moved to Memphis for a job assignment in September 2023. She didn’t have a car and assumed she would use transit to get around, something she had done in other cities. But the first day she walked out onto Poplar Avenue to catch the bus near her Midtown home, she noticed something strange.

There was a woman sitting on a cardboard box near the Route 50 bus stop, which, like most in Memphis, consisted of a sign on a pole with no established seating. Session asked the woman when the bus would arrive.

“I don’t know, honey. I’ve been here for two hours,” said the woman.