Metro Clears Large East Side Homeless Camp

Nearly a year after its residents staved off eviction, the large homeless encampment beneath a collection of overpasses near the intersection of Fifth Street and Main Street has been reduced to a pile of leftover debris. 

The city cleared out the camp Tuesday with bulldozers. News of the action spread after the local homeless outreach organization Open Table Nashville started posting about it on social media that afternoon. According to outreach workers, the camp's residents were given a 30-day warning, and most had vacated the property by the time the bulldozers arrived. 

Mayor David Briley issued a statement on the camp closure:

We were deeply concerned about the safety of those living in this encampment. The weather has been getting colder and we are about to have heavy rain that may cause flooding.

This is also a busy traffic area, and it is not safe for people to live outdoors at this location. We worked closely with Metro Social Services and service providers to ensure every person in the encampment was connected to services. We were able to do that.

No one was arrested either. 

Increasing access to safe and affordable housing – especially for our most vulnerable residents – is a critical priority for my administration. I committed another $10M to the Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing in this past year’s budget, as well as allocating an additional $25M in the Capital Spending Plan. I have prioritized the need for the city to focus on housing units for very low-income residents and people experiencing homelessness.

My proposal to create at least 100 units of permanent supportive housing and a new Downtown Homeless Service Center is an excellent example of this. These investments, along with the work of the Metro Homeless Impact Division and new Homelessness Planning Council, will significantly impact Nashville’s ability to ensure access to housing for people experiencing homelessness and currently living in encampments.

The mayor discussed how he plans to approach increasing homelessness in the city

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But the outreach workers who work closely with Nashville's homeless community are skeptical about not just the rationale behind the closure — they point to the upcoming NFL draft, which Nashville is hosting — but also the win-win framing of the action presented by the mayor. 

From Open Table's statement about the closure:

So where did everyone from the Ellington camp go? Mostly out of sight, out of mind. Mostly to other illegal encampments. We saw one former resident last week in the woods south of town who had just relocated. Others are heading north or to other outlawed patches of woods. A handful of folks were also able to enter programs or receive bus tickets home thanks to the work of really great outreach workers. And in the last year, at least 9 other residents moved into permanent housing, but not without years of work and years of waiting. (6 of those people were moved in by our east side outreach worker Haley!)

So let us be clear. As long as camps are being cleared, as long as people are facing displacement, we will keep standing in the margins with them bearing witness. We will also keep pointing toward solutions. We know that housing ends homelessness. We know that building a 100-unit Service Center downtown is a start, but it isn’t enough. We have to come up with a plan to create the 31,000 units of affordable housing we will need in Nashville by 2025. We need every Nashvillian to ask their elected officials to make this a priority and to mobilize their faith communities, coworkers, and friends to do the same. We are deeply grateful to everyone who is raising their voice with us and our friends to make a difference.