from your often repeated nonsense about case managers and their jobs

Do you mean the stuff like the definitions of the two types of case management and the six facets of one type versus the ten facets of the other as defined by the federal government or were you referring to the fact that the Knoxville TYP plan has one of the lowest client to manager ratios in America as well as no 24 hour access as is typically mandated by a scattered PSH approach?

Feel free to be specific.

Let me apologize in advance for the brevity of my answer but I have to be at an appointment shortly but I wanted to clear up a couple of things.

First, I don't live downtown. I live in Old North Knoxville. I make the distinction although I realize many do not. If you aren't familiar with the area think Central and Baxter, Freezo and the old Sears Building. Secondly, as I have said in the past. I personally wouldn't care if the next site was built next door to me because I would love the savings in gas. I work with the homeless or work on the homeless crisis everyday of my life. The idea that I want them out of my neighborhood is simply uniformed. The well being of the TYP is why it is necessary for it to be in other neighborhoods as well. When a site is built in all four quadrants of the City, I look forward to the next site for newly housed Knoxville residents to be as close to me as possible. That is precisely why I have fought and fought for Debusk and I publicly stated that the enormous mistake that Jon Lawler and the TYP made was not saying that we will fight for it. Instead, they chose subsequent sites only to continue to be shot down. If this didn't prove site selection was not the true issue, I don't know what does. The most telling to prove this point is that during the Debusk debate detractors suggested Teaberry. (That email is part of the Open Records Request I did for the HUD investigation.) During the Teaberry debate, detractors suggested Lakeshore. Now Lakeshore is on the table and all heck is broken loose.

Finally, to the question of JJ bringing homeless to Knoxville from other counties. My first thought is ask JJ why it's happening. I can't speak for him but my gut tells me it is because surrounding counties care even less about their homeless than we do. I would suggest that if other counties want us to take their homeless because they don't provide the service that they sign a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines how much they are going to pay Knox County for said services. You know what will probably happen then? When it becomes more expensive to pay Knox County for the service than to provide the services themselves, they will provide the service.

In my eyes, almost every question can be answered with LEADERSHIP. Take your self interest out of the equation and LEAD.

Ray Abbas

This issue popped up back in March. Sheriff Jones addressed it immediately.

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 12:37 PM, Amy Broyles wrote:

Neighbors,

Sheriff Jones spent a great deal of time yesterday working on this issue for us, and here is how it currently stands:

After speaking with his dispatchers, he discovered to his surprise that they were indeed sending patrol cars out to the county line to pick up former inmates from other counties and bring them to KARM. He has given instructions to his dispatchers that this is to stop immediately. His new policy is that KCSD will not send deputies out to the county line to accept other counties' former inmates or homeless and then transport them to KARM. He has also spoken directly with the Sheriffs of Roane, Loudon and Blount counties and asked them to no longer call KCSD for transport, and to not bring them in themselves. Apparently, those are the three counties who do this most frequently.

Sheriff Jones has apologized for this situation, even though he didn't realize it was occurring. I appreciate his attention to this matter and the actions he has taken to correct the situation. I also would like to thank Rob Finley in the TYP office for working on this issue as well - I believe he was the first one to contact Sherry Jones about it yesterday, and he has been a vocal advocate for the neighborhoods on this issue.

I hope we will all keep an eye out for squad cars from other counties dropping people off in our area. I hope the other counties will respect Sheriff Jones' request, but we will see.

Commissioner Amy Broyles posted the above on the 37917 listserv, and she gave me permission to re-post it here at KnoxViews. I hope it's helpful.

Wow,

The KNS actually reported on this story, finally after 5 months.
(link...)

Interesting how they managed to not mention Knox County Commissioner Amy Broyles, or her email posted here by Robert Finley.

Go to: (link...)
So you can help stop this kind of manipulation by our government.

I think generally the standard is no more than 1/3 of income (whether from SSI or employment or both), with the difference between that and HUD-determined fair market rent potentially covered by a 'housing choice voucher.' So nobody coughs up their entire income in rent, and HUD puts a cap on how much rent can be charged in the first place.

The bottom line is this: if this is all such a lucrative endeavor, why is it that, despite the lagging economy, there isn't a line of developers going down the street to make all this sweet, easy money? I'll tell you why. Because there's no sweet, easy money.