At Mayor Bill Purcell’s annual housing summit, the Nashville Homeless Power Project received a noticeable response from its continued call for more homeless housing. The mayor committed 600-thousand dollars to the effort – money in addition to what’s already been requested.

After directly asking the mayor for 2-point-3 million dollars to build 200 units late last year and receiving little response, Power Project member Clemmie Greenlee says (today’s/yesterday’s) announcement shows Purcell is more open to the idea.

“They knew, uh oh, Nashville Homeless Power Project, oh no, here they come. So he knew he had to throw something in here to throw us off. So we conquered what we came here for.”

The Power Project has criticized the mayor for not committing enough funding to homelessness after forming a commission to address the issue in 2005. Since then, 34 subsidized apartments have been built specifically for the homeless. Power project members point out that the city is falling behind on a goal to build 18-hundred units by 2015.

Purcell says there’s no such goal.

“I think the overall number of units necessary for homelessness is still under very much consideration and review. What we’ve got to do at this stage is keep growing the number and growing the programs that support the people in that housing.”

The mayor says he’ll be reviewing funding levels and capital requests from the Homelessness Commission, suggesting that more money may be headed to housing the chronically homeless.