Nashville Might Swoop In On Homeless Camps — To Help Them

Nashville is getting closer to a new policy on how to treat homeless encampments. A city task force recommends a change away from the current tendency, which is to send police out to break up campsites.

As assigned by the
Metro Homelessness Commission, an encampment task force has worked for two months on a new protocol that could change a long history of how the city deals with unauthorized camping.

“Because 12 years ago, how we handled encampments was we had surprise raids and chased people out of the woods,” said Ellen Zinkiewicz during a meeting of the homelessness commission last week. “But it feels like we’re headed the right direction.”

The commission is ready to request city funding for what it’s calling a “HOT” response squad — which stands for “Homeless Outreach Team.”

Wherever the homeless were found camping, the team would swoop in to work with property owners to set reasonable deadlines for them to leave. They’d also provide storage for their belongings and help finding a home.

Across Nashville, the task force estimates that between 600 and 1,000 homeless people are literally sleeping outdoors. (Read the
five-page task force recommendations here.)

The group — which heard from many homeless citizens during its meetings — says the only true solution will be through expanding the city’s affordable housing stock.

“One of our challenges was to find a common thread with the people who are in the camps and what we can reasonably to do to see that their suffering is alleviated and that we can find permanent housing,” said task force co-chairman Phil Duke.

Observing the process, Charles Strobel, founder of Room in the Inn, praised several Metro departments for a “compassionate” approach.

“We’re dealing with a problem the city has yet to be able to embrace and be able to tackle,” he said. “And I think Metro Council needs to be more alert to it and pushed to try to force more funding for the housing.”

Speaking from the mayor’s administration, Eric Cole, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity and Empowerment, said he was pleased with the “more humane” guidelines in the works.

Still, when asked where Nashville’s homeless services rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, the highest response from a commission member was a score of 4.

Permanent Camping In Limbo

The task force has not decided whether an official — and permanent — camping village makes sense for the city, or what the rules could be.

That suggestion sprang up because of a long-running campsite on Metro land behind the Adventure Science Center and historic Fort Negley, as
reported last year by WPLN.

Campers there face an eviction deadline in mid-April after successfully pushing for several extensions.

The task force and city agencies have heard details of how four other cities run permanent camps.