Housing To Be Provided For Homeless In Nashville’s Brookmeade Park
Image Credit: Reclaim Brookmeade Park & Greenway
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
As Metro Nashville starts the process of closing homeless encampments, individuals at the Brookmeade Park encampment on Charlotte Pike have been notified of additional housing.
According to Metro officials, there is a goal to have approximately 45 individuals housed by Christmas. The camp is expected to be closed by January 1.
The Encampment Prioritization Team made a decision to prioritize Brookmeade and the encampment near the soccer fields.
Individuals living in the soccer field encampment, roughly 25 people, will be notified of their housing options in the upcoming weeks.
Members of the Homelessness Planning Council members finalized guidelines that prioritized and closed encampments back in August.
Prioritization lists the following: vulnerability of encampment residents, location of the camp, and dangerous conditions in the camp.
This year, Brookmeade had a large number of emergency medical calls, 17 fire calls, and 10 violent crime reports. The encampment at the soccer fields has had 18 emergency medical calls and five fire calls.
The leading factor in prioritization is vulnerability of the population, according to the EPT plan.
Mayor John Cooper’s $50 million plan to address homelessness was passed by Metro Council in October.
The money was provided by the American Rescue Plan funds. $25 million was for developers to quickly increase affordable housing units, $9 million for new temporary gap housing, $9 million for wraparound services and $7 million toward barriers being lowered around housing access.
Housing opportunities have been opened up through the Salvation Army and Community Care Fellowship. These can be used to immediately house those individuals living at the camps.
Almost 2,000 individuals experienced homelessness from November 2021 to October 2022, and have been housed through Metro’s work. However, there are still nearly 500 people in Nashville considered chronically homeless.
As more housing is becoming available, Metro will continue to provide more options for Nashville’s homeless population.
A system called Coordinated Entry is used by Metro and other organizations to prioritize and place individuals in options that are available to them.
Based on what resources are available at the time, the list will fluctuate depending on the vulnerability of the individual.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
What about getting them a Job? I know there are plenty out there.
The problem with getting these people a job is their ssn would show up and they are probably wanted for something. People make choices to live like this.
They should get jobs like the rest of us, instead of taking a government handout. Police should background check these ‘people’ rather than Cooper giving them free housing at taxpayers’ expense.