1. Press last week: MetroPulse feature, News Sentinel editorial
MetroPulse
Frank N. Carlson wrote last week’s MetroPulse cover story about the TYP. It’s very well-crafted, thorough, and fair. We encourage you to take the time to read it and pass it on to others. Carlson’s piece focuses attention on some of the controversy surrounding the TYP, and it also serves as a good introduction to the TYP.
We appreciate MetroPulse’s timely and thorough engagement with the issue of homelessness. Wherever its readers are in their thinking about the TYP, this piece will be very informative.
News Sentinel
Last Tuesday’s News Sentinel contained an excellent editorial on the TYP. It gave a good summary of the issue of chronic homelessness, the origin of the TYP, and what it is. As we all know, chronic homelessness and the context in which it exists are extremely complex. Implementing the TYP is anything but simple.
The comments after the editorial, in which Scott Barker, Editorial Page/Community Voices Coordinator, plays an active and evenhanded role, underscore the challenge of communicating about the plan.
The piece calls for a mid-term, community-wide re-engagement with the TYP. “…if the Ten Year Plan is the best approach to getting the chronically homeless off the streets, and we remain convinced that it is, then it will stand up under scrutiny. That doesn’t mean, however, that its implementation can’t be refined if necessary. Now, halfway through the plan’s projected life, is a good time to have a community-wide discussion about this community-wide problem.” We couldn’t agree more.
2. Flenniken: Use on Review, working group forming, meeting cancellation
Last Thursday, MPC approved Southeastern Housing Foundation’s Use on Review (UOR) request for the Flenniken Housing development by a vote of 8-4. The vote was a positive shift from last summer’s UOR denial by MPC in a 12-1 vote. We commend MPC for its focus on the land-use issue before it, and are pleased that the developer is now one critical step closer to converting a blighted property into quality apartments that will help to end chronic homelessness in our community and that will be an asset to the community surrounding them.
The TYP has held meetings with residents of the community surrounding Flenniken School since spring of 2008. The last two, held at the South Knoxville Community Center, covered a wide variety of topics, including concerns about community safety and the site plan for the Flenniken project.
We appreciate the time invested in these meetings by everyone who has attended. We have listened to the concerns of residents near Flenniken School and of individuals from other parts of Knoxville, and we have answered a lot of questions. We have learned a lot in these conversations and have hopefully communicated good information about the prospective residents of Flenniken Housing and the role that housing will play in their rebuilding their lives in the community.
At these meetings, many questions focused on the Ten-Year Plan in general. At the same time, we have been unable to devote appropriate attention to the concerns and questions of those individuals, institutions and businesses who live and work in close proximity to Flenniken.
Therefore, for now, the TYP will cease holding general meetings on the Flenniken project; the meeting previously scheduled at the South Knoxville Community Center on Monday, August 16, was cancelled. Individuals in South Knoxville and elsewhere interested in learning about and discussing the various elements of the TYP are encouraged to attend the TYP’s citywide public conversation meetings.
Since the Flenniken project will soon become a reality, the emphasis now needs to be on building relationships among those who will be involved in and live near the apartments. To that end, Knoxville Leadership Foundation/Southeastern Housing Foundation, Flenniken’s prospective owner, is in the process of developing a working group made up of stakeholders in the Flenniken development.
The purpose of this group will be to foster good communication among the owner, key service providers, residents of the community surrounding Flenniken, and other stakeholders. The ultimate goal of the group will be to help Flenniken integrate well into the community, and to help its residents to be good neighbors in a good neighborhood. We anticipate this working group being up and running this fall. Stay tuned. We’ll keep you informed of its progress.
3. TYP speaker’s bureau developing
One way we hope to reach neighborhood groups, civic groups, service clubs and other community organizations is through a speakers bureau made up of supporters of the TYP. If you know of any such organization you would like for us to contact about speaking, would you please let us know?
Please email your suggestions to Robert Finley.
Thank you
Thank you for taking the time to be engaged with the issue of homelessness and our community’s work to address it. If you have questions or concerns about anything related to the TYP, please do not hesitate to let us know.