"...Councilwoman Parker has not to my knowledge disclosed what she had in mind ..."

Councilwoman Amelia Parker
20h ·
This morning, I joined a letter sent by the National Homelessness Law Center and ACLU of Tennessee, and signed by multiple community groups, calling on our city government to stop the sweeps of homeless camps and instead use federal dollars to put those experiencing homelessness into hotel rooms for the duration of the pandemic. I have consistently made this request of the administration since last year with no success. Since then, we have lost multiple members of our houseless community to preventable deaths. On Monday night, a hit and run victim on Broadway who is believed to have been homeless was killed while crossing the street in the middle of the night.
I was disappointed that none of my colleagues on council granted me a second on my resolution regarding encampments so that we could engage in a very important and urgent discussion regarding our plan for transitioning individuals from the streets to housing. We all share the goal of a Knoxville with no encampments. However, the process of building trust and connecting individuals with the support services they need takes time - more than 72 hours. Once the FEMA funding runs out, Knoxville needs a long term plan. I will continue to raise these concerns and push new ideas until we have a plan in place that ensures the dignity of those experiencing homelessness while also ensuring the health and safety of our city as a whole.
Knoxville is full of people who care and believe our city is better than the current treatment we see the unhoused receiving in this city. I absolutely agree and believe we can do better.
Please contact the mayor’s office and express your support for Knoxville using FEMA reimbursement dollars to provide housing for those experiencing homelessness. More details and contact information is included in the letter below.
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#HousingNotHandcuffs #HotelsNotHospitalBedsCouncilwoman Amelia Parker

I remember the Ten Year Plan debacle and triumph well. What I learned is that bribery, and by that I mean general improvements that otherwise would not have happened, is the key to advancing projects for the homeless. In the case we are talking about now, there will be issues that will require, not only creative solutions, but finding people within the community willing to take chances and risk joining in an experiment, because have no doubt, we are not talking about permanent solutions here, but rather a temporary fix while we build a staff qualified and able to work with our homeless population.

Take the malfunction junction/ Blackstock area. At the risk of sounding like I’m talking about a livestock house, we need a place to interact, inventory and evaluate the needs of our homeless. We could also use a place where we can allow overnight/ weekend parking / tailgating for downtown festivals in order to help our downtown business owners survive. With toilet, bathing, and garbage pick-up this space could serve both needs. In addition, parking/camping revenues as well as some taxes generated and possibly a portion of ticket sales could go to staffing the people we will need to help solve this problem. Now, I’m not advocating this as a be all end all solution, but I am advocating opening up a dialogue whereby ideas get put on the table that are morally acceptable while benefiting the community at large. This will likely call for group think and buy in from neighborhood partners. There has to be a give and take for this to work.

This is not going to be an easy problem to solve. It won’t ever be easy, the issue is whether we are going to make it impossible.