Nashville has long been home to a place called Tent City, a large encampment that has long been home to a fairly large community of that city’s homeless people. The encampment has long been controversial, with some in the city calling for its immediate closure and others advocating for the encampment’s residents. Just over a year ago, plans to close the camp were in place, and move-out deadlines were extended.
Now, instead of closure, Nashville’s Tent City gets some support to increase safety and to address health concerns. It appears that the pressure to close Tent City has served to highlight the lack of alternatives for people who are homeless.
Nashville, like Knoxville and most cities, doesn’t have an abundant supply of decent, super-affordable housing for people with extremely low incomes, and a large percentage of its homeless people, like many of those who live here, are dealing with mental illness and other disabling conditions.
People who need housing like this have few choices. They can stay at shelters like KARM, and many do, but those shelters in most communities operate over capacity most of the time, and some folks simply won’t stay in them. Where do they go? Outdoors.
Small camps exist all over Knoxville and Knox County. We don’t presently have a really big encampment like Nashville’s, but they exist in many other cities. They’re controversial because they raise concerns over safety and public health, and by nature, their occupants are trespassing.
Just over a year ago, trash piles lined the paths, and residents dug holes in the ground to use the toilet. Though church groups came often with food, most meals were cooked over a fire. The trash piles, where rats fed, have been replaced with trash bins. Portable toilets line the entrance to the camp. Most days, a truck arrives by the railroad tracks to feed the residents.
Law enforcement officers have become more engaged at Tent City, too.
It’s commendable for a community to address issues of safety and health at big campsites. Especially given the lack of alternatives. Camps, however, should no be allowed to become a default housing alternative. They can’t be allowed to create complacency.
Councilman Erik Cole. . . says that it’s a tenuous situation and that nearly everyone agrees the camp, as it currently exists, can’t be permanent.
Energy and resources should be devoted to adding sufficent amounts of deeply affordable housing to local housing stock, and helping people make the transition from camp into that permanent housing as rapidly as possible.