The Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness (TYP) in Knoxville and Knox County is part of a national movement to end long-term or chronic homelessness. A person who is chronically homeless is, by HUD’s definition, a disabled individual who has been homeless for at least one year or who has had four episodes of homelessness in the last three years. Another perspective: People who are chronically homeless struggle with some disabling condition, whether it be mental, physical, or related to addiction, and lack the resources with which to address their issues. We always find homelessness where mental illness and addiction meet poverty. The TYP offers a long-range, comprehensive approach to ending homelessness, a key part of which is helping homeless people gain stability in permanent supportive housing (PSH).

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Characteristics

PSH offers residents permanent rental housing set up for independent living (an apartment), and then surrounds them with the social services they require in order to stay in their housing.

• A PSH development is not a mental institution, an emergency shelter, a halfway house, or transitional housing.
• PSH residents sign a lease, pay rent, and can stay as long as they need/want to and as long as they abide by the terms of their lease agreements, just like residents of any other longterm rental housing.
• PSH saves money. It costs the community much less to house someone in PSH than it costs to leave them in a state of chronic homelessness because PSH residents consume far fewer emergency services. Dr. Roger Nooe’s 2006 study Local Cost Estimates (Knoxville, Tennessee) found that a chronically homeless person costs our community an average of over $40,000 per year. We are still gathering data on costs, but we believe that an average PSH resident would cost our community less than half that amount.

The Teaberry Housing Development

Teaberry Housing is a proposed 48-unit permanent supportive housing development for men and women who are chronically homeless. The development is in its very earliest stages. An architect has not yet been engaged and no design work has been completed, so the following description is general in nature.

• Teaberry will be owned and operated by Southeastern Housing Foundation, a nonprofit affordable housing developer in Knoxville. Development will be funded by a mix of tax credit equity and various grants. The developer will contract with a professional property management firm with experience in affordable housing, and case management programming will be carried out by Volunteer Ministry Center.
• Teaberry’s facility will include a number of the physical attributes necessary to any permanent supportive housing development. These attributes contribute to a safe, secure, and healthy living environment.
• Safety and security are vital to residents, case managers, and the community. Teaberry residents will be very low-income, and will likely need HUD Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers. KCDC must do certain kinds of background investigations on applicants for these vouchers, and cannot grant them to people who have been convicted of violent felonies, certain kinds of drug offenses, or sex offenders. If a prospective resident does not plan to use a voucher, the owner/developer of Teaberry (Southeastern Housing Foundation) will conduct background investigations to the same standard as KCDC’s.
• Teaberry will feature a common entry with controlled access. The property will include offices for a property manager, office space for case managers, laundry facilities, common-area bathrooms, and ample community space.
• The development will be quality new construction and will consist of 48 one-bedroom units, each including its own private kitchen and bath. The structure will probably be two stories in height, with a brick and/or Hardie siding exterior.

The first story ran on Friday, and you can watch it here.

Click here to watch the second story.

The idea behind this series is to give viewers a window into PSH, which is such a critical part of our community’s strategy to end chronic homelessness.

What keeps a person living on the streets for years? How big a factor is mental illness? Addiction? What difference does it make to have a safe, secure place of one’s own? What about the role of case managers? How does housing with support change the life of a person who’s been on the street for long time?

Stay tuned. This series should touch on all of those questions, and more. We appreciate WBIR’s interest, and Ms. Morrow’s excellent work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Ten-Year Plan Advisory Board meets quarterly. The TYP AB offers guidance and acts as a sounding board for the office of the TYP. At every meeting, the TYP staff present a progress report. Click here to review those reports and to learn more about the AB.

The TYP AB’s next meeting will take place on Friday, December 4, 2009 at 8am at the Knox County Public Defenders Community Law Office, 1101 Liberty Street, near the intersection of Liberty and Division Street just off Sutherland Avenue. This meeting is open to the public, as are all TYP AB meetings.

This meeting will feature an important presentation about the TYP’s work with Bradley Greene & Associates. This work addresses as a system the homeless service provider network in Knoxville and has significant implications for the TYP and its mission.

The below announcement is from Grant Rosenberg in Knox County’s Office of Neighborhoods and Community Development.

As has been discussed here and elsewhere, the Ten-Year Plan is committed to a scattered-site approach to developing permanent supportive housing options as part of our strategy to end homelessness in our community.

Southeastern Housing Foundation, a local nonprofit affordable housing developer, has a contract on a piece of property deep in west Knox County that is appropriately zoned for multifamily housing.

The proposed development is for 23 units of permanent supportive housing. The units will be small apartments configured for independent living. Residents will sign leases and pay rent, and will be able to keep their apartments for as long as they want to and can abide by the terms of their leases. They will also receive supportive services to help them remain successfully housed and to rebuild their lives in the community.

The meeting described below will be the second public meeting to address this proposed development. The first occurred last night at the regular meeting of the Council of West Knox Homeowners.

PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING TO DISCUSS PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING AT 125 DEBUSK LN.

WHO
Mayors’ Office of the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness
Southeastern Housing Foundation
Knox County Office of Neighborhoods & Community Development

WHAT
Public information meeting to discuss the proposed development of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals at 125 DeBusk Ln.

WHEN
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 7:00PM

WHERE
Frank R. Strang Senior Center
109 Lovell Heights Road
Knoxville, TN 37922

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Knox County, the Mayor’s 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and Southeastern Housing Foundation will host an informational meeting regarding a proposed development of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals at 125 DeBusk Ln. Funding for the acquisition of the site is on the November 16, 2009 County Commission agenda. Representatives will be on hand to answer questions about the 10 Year Plan, Permanent Supportive Housing, and the funding and development of the site. Several County Commissioners may be in attendance.

For more information contact: Grant Rosenberg Office 215-4751/Cell 755-3065

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.

Lowe’s piece is focused on Marjorie Lopes, a woman who used to be chronically homeless and who now resides at Guy B. Love Towers, a KCDC property that houses several people who have left chronic homelessness behind and who are now succeeding in permanent housing with case management support. Marjorie’s story is moving, and Lowe tells it well.

The piece doesn’t mention Jessica Bocángel, the Mentoring Program Coordinator for the Compassion Coalition. Jessica played a key role in creating Circles of Support and helping to grow the program to its present scale. We believe this program is unique in some significant ways, and that it has the potential to move members of the faith based community in a new direction as it engages the issue of homelessness.

Circles of Support gives faith based communities (churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc.) a new way to get involved in ending homelessness. Each faith based community assembles a team of five mentors who are trained, and who commit to maintaining a relationship with one neighbor in permanent supportive housing for one year. Two members of the mentor team will get together to visit their neighbor each week for a specified time period. Mentor teams are trained not to proselytize, but if their neighbor wants to join them for event in their faith community, that’s certainly okay.

The emphasis in Circles of Support is on relationships instead of transactions. Relationships like the one Marjorie has with members of her mentor team have really transformed her life, as she will tell you.

Rita and I share a special love. I have changed a lot because of her and the group, and for the better. After all the hell I went through for 12-13 years, it means a lot to have somebody now.

The TYP is focused on ending homelessness. We’ve said since the beginning that homelessness is a community issue that the whole community needs to address ending it. We all acknowledge that the purpose of ending homelessness goes beyond just helping people get off the streets. It also means giving them the opportunity to build the kind of life they desire in our community. This story exemplifies that.  As Mike Dunthorn points out,

Marjorie has proven that, with a little help, someone who has spent considerable time lost out on the streets can successfully live in permanent housing. Even better, when a few everyday people offered her a welcoming embrace of friendship, her housing actually became a home. This is what ending chronic homelessness looks like.

So thanks, Jessica. And thanks to Rita and your team. And Marjorie, thank you for sharing your story.

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.