There’s been talk of dysfunction at the Continuum of Care Homelessness Planning Council ever since Judith Tackett resigned as director of the Metro Homeless Impact Division. Tackett was a longtime leader of Nashville’s efforts to get people into housing, and local service providers have made it clear she’d be hard to replace. Mayor John Cooper tapped Jay Servais of the Office of Emergency Management to step in as the interim director, but local service providers are voicing concerns and frustrations about a lack of transparency and collaboration from the division.
At the monthly HPC meeting, held Wednesday morning at Vine Hill Towers in Wedgewood-Houston, there was confusion about housing goals and repeated references to the urgent need to refill positions as members of the council resigned. The body struggled to close the meeting on time — one member waved an Elmo doll to signal to another that they had gone over their speaking time. A seasoned member made clear her disappointment with the seeming impotence of the council ahead of one particular vote, which was to approve a resolution to make a recommendation. A few times, Councilmember Freddie O’Connell said that the meeting needs better structure and more focused agendas.
The biggest conflict of the morning, however, stemmed from a pilot program to house Nashvillians living in a camp under the Jefferson Street Bridge, which to some service providers is symbolic of the lack of transparency and cooperation they perceive from the city. Servais told the HPC that the pilot program, whose goal is to help get camp residents into housing, was already being implemented with help from The Salvation Army.
Paula Foster, executive director of Open Table Nashville, said Servais was carrying out a plan that hadn’t been vetted by the council. Servais said he had already presented the plan at the meeting in January.
“We asked for comments on that and we received zero,” said Servais.
“You were supposed to come back and present it to us, and explain what's in the plan to us,” Foster replied. “You handed it out last month and we asked you to come back this month, and give us more details.”
Servais said he hopes to house the current nine residents of the camp by the end of next week. He also noted The Salvation Army has been involved in previous efforts at the camp. The city called for the Jefferson Street camp to close last summer, and while many people left — some into housing, others to different campsites — a few remained.
Karri Gornick of the Oasis Center, which focuses on youth homelessness, said the pilot circumvents the coordinated entry system. That system helps match up individuals with the programs and resources they need to get into housing or programs, and puts them on a list organized by their needs — making them priority candidates for that help. Servais said that most if not all residents of the camp were already in the coordinated system.
Speaking to the Scene after the meeting, Gornick said, “If you're at the top of the list and we have a rapid rehousing resource available, that includes rental assistance, wraparound case management [and] housing navigation to help you obtain and maintain housing.
“If you're not at the top of the list … you don't necessarily need that level of resources. And the person who does didn't get it, because you just circumvented the prioritization process.”
Foster tells the Scene it could also encourage more people to move into the camps, since it would make them look like the best places to get help. “It makes me … want to go gather up as many people as we can find and put them under Jefferson Street Bridge so they can get housing.”
Foster’s exchange with Servais signals tension between the city and service providers.
“There has been a breakdown in trust between the Planning Council, service providers and the Metropolitan Homeless Impact Division since the departure of the previous executive director [Tackett],” says Foster.
Foster says she thinks Servais is a “great guy,” but “he’s not the right person for this job.”
During the meeting another HPC member noted the tension in the room, and that it could lead to arguments and defensiveness.
Servais also addressed the fallout of an interview with local Fox affiliate WZTV, in which he described a dashboard the public could access to learn information about local homeless camps, including population numbers and Metro efforts to house people. A quote from the article said confidential information would be shared, though public information officer Harriet Wallace says that has since been corrected. (An exchange about that quote can also be found in the comments on the Homeless Impact Division’s Facebook page.)
During the meeting, two members of the Homeless Management Information Systems team, Rachel Cook and Shanley Deignan, announced their departure. An outreach worker familiar with the team members' work lamented that they were leaving, telling the Scene that Deignan built the current HMIS from the ground up. HMIS is a technology system that collects data about people experiencing homelessness and what resources are available to them.
The HPC also voted on and approved one resolution: A recommendation that Metro open cold-weather emergency shelters on nights where the temperature falls to 32 degrees, instead of the current threshold of 28. While some members voiced concerns about costs and logistics, Foster noted that the board only had the power to recommend anyways.
Servais responded to follow-up questions from the Scene via public information officer Harriett Wallace. Wallace says the city has been seeing success housing Jefferson Street residents, writing: “An October 2020 count of Jefferson Street residents was 108. As of today, we are down to nine and valid housing options have already been identified for them.”
Wallace adds that, “with regard to process, there is no existing governance that requires the pilot [to] receive approval or feedback from the HPC. However, with respect to the HPC, Dir. Servais shared the plan so the HPC would continue to be in the loop of progress at Jefferson Street and weigh in with any suggestions as the plan moves forward. That opportunity remains available. We value each and every one of our community partners which includes those on our Homelessness Planning Council.”
She also said that the “HPC was notified by Servais of the revised plan as early as November during the monthly HPC meeting.”
Wallace also noted the growth of the landlord incentive program, which now involves 107 landlords. “This has expanded our housing inventory to an average of 150 units available each month."
The day after the HPC meeting, Open Table Nashville released a lengthy statement blasting the plan, saying it lacked vetting by the council and “set a dangerous precedent.”
