Summary is at the top of this update. It’s expanded below.
1. Coming up this Wednesday: Public Conversation #4 — Mental healthcare services delivery. The TYP will hold its next public conversation on 6pm Wednesday, July 21 at the Cansler YMCA.
2. Reminder: Neighborhood meeting about Flenniken Housing. The TYP will dialog with residents of the neighborhoods close to the Flenniken School about safety on Thursday, July 29 at the South Knoxville Community Center.
3. In the news: Transport of people who are homeless to Knox County. The TYP’s response.
1. This Wednesday: Public Conversation #4 — Mental healthcare services delivery
The TYP will hold its next public conversation at 6pm Wednesday, July 21 at the Cansler YMCA. The topic will be mental healthcare services in the context of permanent supportive housing. Sheryl McCormick, Coordinator, Recovery Training Services at Peninsula, will present for the first half-hour with Q & A to follow.
Ms. McCormick, as a person who has experienced homelessness and who lives a full and active life with a psychiatric disorder, brings a unique and extremely well-informed perspective to this conversation. McCormick says that recovery would not have been possible for her if she’d been warehoused or otherwise segregated. Community integration, with housing built out in the community, is critical for the success of people with mental illness.
We encourage you to attend this important conversation and to invite people you know to attend with you. This is an excellent opportunity to gain a more complete understanding of how mental healthcare services are delivered in our community and why they are such a vital component of our own Ten-Year Plan’s strategy to end chronic homelessness.
2. Reminder: Neighborhood meeting about Flenniken Housing
The TYP will dialog with residents of the neighborhoods close to the Flenniken School about safety on Thursday, July 29 at the South Knoxville Community Center.
The last time we met was on June 21. At that meeting we discussed establishing a regular meeting concerning Flenniken Housing. Attendees agreed that a monthly meeting on Monday* evening would be appropriate, and that the meeting should continue to take place at the South Knoxville Community Center. Attendees also generated a list of potential topics for those meetings. It became apparent at that time that the most significant concerns shared by Flenniken’s neighbors are related to the over-arching issue of safety, and that is what the meeting on the 29th will be about.
*Please note that this meeting had previously been scheduled for Monday, July 19. It was changed to Thursday, July 29 at the request of a City Councilmember whose schedule did not permit attendance on the previously-scheduled date.
Again, we encourage you to attend this meeting and to invite others to join you. Safety for residents of permanent supportive housing, as well as for their neighbors, is of vital concern no matter where it’s built.
3. In the news: Transport of people who are homeless to Knox County
We spoke this week with reporters for local television stations about the recent news that officials from some counties surrounding ours have been sending people who are homeless to Knox County. We sent them the following information:
- The TYP’s reaction to news that some surrounding counties send people who are homeless who get discharged from jail to Knox County so they can obtain shelter.
- To keep this in perspective, Knoxville is a mid-sized city situated within an area that’s historically rural. We have all kinds of resources here. That’s true of any city like ours.
- People come to Knoxville from surrounding counties for a lot of different reasons: healthcare, jobs, educational opportunities, and more.
- Are people who are homeless from surrounding counties going to come to Knoxville to gain access to services here? Sure. I’d probably want to do the same thing if I had no family, friends and other resources available to me if I fell into homelessness nearby.
- Contrary to an often-repeated myth, we are not a unique magnet for homeless people from all over the country. Over 60% of the people who experience homelessness in Knox County list an address in Knox County as their last permanent address, with just under 80% having their last permanent address in Knox or one of the counties that surround Knox.
- Our situation is very similar to most other cities of our size in our part of the country.
- The TYP’s reaction to the Sheriff’s response to learning that KCSO employees were meeting their colleagues from other counties and bringing people discharged from jails to homeless shelters in Knox County.
- Sheriff Jones was very responsive and acted fast to resolve the situation just as soon as it came to his attention.