Think again.
A camp in the Cedar Bluff area, about a dozen miles away from our so-called “mission district,” that was used by people who are homeless has apparently been destroyed. WVLT covers the story here.
This story discredits the myth that homelessness is not an issue that directly effects Knoxville’s and Knox County’s suburbs. There are camps all over our community. Some of them are right downtown. Others are a short walk of the Interstate in deep West Knox County.
It’s also true that there are a lot of camps out there that you’ll never know about unless they become associated with trouble of some kind. Camps often remain virtually invisible for quite a long time. Of course, some of the people who live in them are quite visible. You can spot them soliciting donations at Interstate exit ramps and in the parking lots of strip malls. Some are longterm residents of the areas in which they set up camp.
Not all people who live in camps make their living by committing crimes. Many campers who live close to downtown, for example, actually work during the day. Their location gives them ready access to day labor staffing services, and they use these services to get jobs and make money. The invisibility of their campsites protects the belongings they leave behind when they’re gone during the day. It also helps to protect them when they’re at their campsites.
Some service providers in our community, most notably Knoxville & Knox County Community Action Committee, do quite a bit of outreach in the camps in Knox County. Their objective is to build relationships that will help move people who are homeless out of camps and into permanent or transitional housing.
It simply is not true that everyone who’s living in a camp wants to be out there experiencing a carefree drug-fueled 21st Century version of this tale. Some of them are, perhaps, but there are many others whose mental illness and addiction issues are the monsters that keep them out in the woods. Homelessness, whether its being lived out in a camp, under a bridge, or in an emergency shelter, is always a major symptom of underlying issues that are all but impossible to address effectively in the unrelenting chaos of a life lived outdoors.
We’re committed to the idea that housing, with appropriate support, is the biggest part of the solution. Let’s end homelessness instead of just pushing it around.
5 Comments
How are the homeless people expected to pay 10 dollars per night to stay at the homeless shelter? That is 70 dollars per week! Not too many homeless people have that kind of money!
Stephanie,
I’m not aware that any emergency shelter in our area charges clients to stay overnight. Have you seen something on this website or anywhere else that indicates something different? We’d really like to know about it if you have.
Thanks,
Robert
The Cedar Bluff “campers” are likely the same ones that have been manning West Knoxville’s interstate off-ramps hunting (in some cases, rather aggressively) for spare change.
But yeah, housing-first is going to take care of that… by taking them out of the camps, anyway.
It’s almost like the entire plan was concocted by individuals who never honestly spent a day in their lives as the homeless.
Actually, the folks who work at Lovell and Campbell Station live in all kinds of different settings, many of them in camps scattered throughout the county west of Cedar Bluff. Interestingly, some of the people who panhandle out west are not homeless at all, and make the commute from neighborhoods in what’s considered to be inner-city Knoxville. I can’t prove that, but some homeless people with whom I’ve spoken say it. I don’t have any reason to disbelieve them.
Many people contributed to the creation of the TYP, which was adopted by the Mayors of the City and the County in October 2005.. They included the TYP Task Force, members of which were appointed by the Mayors, I understand. There were many others associated with the creation of the plan through their involvement with the Homeless Coalition. Added to this long list were the Community Concerns Working Groups, which included interested members of the community. So the TYP was created with a very broad base of community input made by a lot of people from all over the place. Had any of them ever experienced homelessness? I don’t know, but one or two of them certainly might have.
Here’s an idea:
Build Minvilla and Flenniken as agencies that will operate as transitional supportive housing for the chronically and transitionally homeless that want to work and are willing to work through and stick with a comprehensive, 9-month program explicitly geared toward truly reintegrating them back into “mainstream” (if you can call it that) society.
WHY: You cannot reward a drug addict or many individuals classified as mentally ill because, simply put, they won’t change. They’re used to scamming the system, getting what they want, and moving on if they can’t get it. That’s how the bulk of them operate.
If an addict wants to work and follow a program that includes a strict zero-tolerance policy for drugs/alcohol – combined with supportive therapies commonly employed and clinically proven to help combat withdrawls – that’s another story. That’s a person that wants to change. By not enforcing structure, we would end up enabling too many addicts and drunks to make it a conscionable decision.
HOW: A joint effort between the city and county’s homeless eradication advocates and willing local businesses (preferably of a sizable variety) can create a certain number of jobs that can be utilized for this program. Agencies like Goodwill Industries have made it their mission to accomplish this, and may be able to offer solid, tangible, fact-based input on the subject. Can’t hurt to ask, anyway.
As for the chronically homeless addicts and drunks who seek only to sponge off of our good will without contributing – bring back enforced community service and make the jails so spartan it makes Gloria Allred’s head explode! If they want to get loaded and commit crimes around here with the intent of going to jail, they won’t do it very often.
And even if they do, we get some work out of ‘em so it’s not a complete loss. I can’t imagine many would hang around for very long, though.
As for the TRULY medically unfit to work – I mean, completely unable to be productive in ANY capacity at ANY time – get a solid count on their number so the community can best decide how to handle such a delicate matter. Permanent supportive housing in THAT instance seems highly appropriate, but we’d probably be talking about an institution simply because of the high concentration of what one would reasonably assume would be a wide variety of conditions.
If a small number, something nice and cushy and new seems appropriate. If a larger number, say, in the hundreds or so, we’ll need to consider something more like a hospital. (Hate to say it, but Baptist is just sitting there empty and is perfectly suited for the task – I just hope there’s nowhere near that many truly disabled homeless in our city.)
Why not this or something like this? Why free stuff for addicts and drunks and not the people who want to work and are willing to prove it?