Nashville’s homeless population may now have a higher vaccination rate than the city’s general adult population.
Since April, the Metro Public Health Department and more than a dozen other local organizations have worked to ensure COVID-19 vaccine access to all individuals experiencing homelessness in Nashville.
“We accomplished that access by bringing the vaccine to a number of different events across the city,” said Brian Haile, CEO of Neighborhood Health, a nonprofit that helped lead the collaborative effort. “We took it into encampments all across Nashville, and we provided vaccinations every weekday at the downtown clinic.”
An estimated 60% of the homeless population has now been vaccinated. In Nashville, about 50% of all residents have had at least one shot and 43% are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nashville groups confirmed the vaccinations of 1,340 individuals experiencing homelessness, and the 10-year average for annual point-in-time estimates of homelessness in Nashville is 2,226 individuals.
“It gives us a good picture of the situation in and across Nashville,” Haile said.
To initiate this project, the groups examined how the city doled out vaccines at shelters during the winter storms in February. They then provided on-site vaccinations to encampments in Centennial Park, under the Jefferson Street bridge, in an area known as Old Tent City, at the Green Street Church of Christ and other locations.
Haile attributes the effort’s success to the countywide collaboration, as well as the non-clinical outreach approach. But he said the effort isn’t over. Neighborhood Health will continue to provide vaccines at its downtown clinic each weekday, as well as foster dialogues about vaccine hesitancy.
“We are far from finished,” Haile said. “Some individuals are still mistrustful and we’re continuing to support them, and we’re going to vaccinate them as soon as they’re ready.”
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