Housing First
The Key Alliance has launched its First Campaign, which aims to raise $550,000 this year to provide Housing First for 50 chronically homeless individuals and to fund one additional street outreach worker.
Our formula for success is:
Housing + Case Management + Income = Reduction in Homelessness.
To contribute to the Key Alliance, click here.
What is Housing First?
Housing First is a cost-effective and proven solution to chronic homelessness that is being implemented across the United States. Housing First can be accomplished without building new housing stock because Nashville has enough existing housing inventory that allows us to partner with property managers, developers and landlords to lease low-income rental units in and around Nashville.
How does Housing First work?
Housing First is a comprehensive housing approach that moves a homeless individual or family into permanent housing as soon as possible. But housing alone does not work. That’s why the Housing First model offers a range of supportive services including comprehensive wrap-around case management, mental health services, substance abuse services, employment and training services, child care for those with special needs, and life skills training.
First introduced in New York by Pathways to Housing, the Housing First model has three significant components:
- Access to permanent housing;
- Intensive and comprehensive case management by a team of master’s level social workers who are available to the client 24/7; and
- Access to clients who have been rejected by other programs.
Providing intensive case management through a team of master’s level social workers assures that clients receive the necessary wrap-around support services they need to remain in housing.
Nashville’s Housing First program has served about 60 individuals and shows a housing retention rate of 92 percent.
The Key Alliance is calling on the community to come together and embrace the Housing First model.
Housing First is the key to moving the most vulnerable, chronic homeless individuals toward self-sufficiency.
About The Key Alliance:
The Key Alliance is the nonprofit fundraising arm of the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission. The goal of The Key Alliance is to raise $20 million in funds from the private sector over the next five years to end chronic homelessness and reduce overall homelessness in Nashville. The Key Alliance functions under an independent, private-sector board.
Approximately 140 homeless individuals were evacuated from flooded areas, which destroyed and contaminated the former Tent City location near Downtown Nashville. Most individuals lost everything they had.
A majority of the homeless individuals who lost everything were transported to the Red Cross Shelter at Lipscomb University. The Metropolitan Homelessness Commission (MHC) immediately communicated with stakeholders at the David Lipscomb University shelter and presented a plan of action to close the shelter at the stakeholders request.
The Commission approached the Metropolitan Development and Housing Authority (MDHA) to release emergency housing vouchers. Representatives from MDHA went to Lipscomb University within the first week and took Section 8 Housing voucher applications. Of the 66 voucher applications taken, 29 have been approved to date. Only four have been denied so far. The remaining applications are still in the approval process.
In addition, working with the Mayor’s Recovery Team, MDHA, local stakeholder agencies, FEMA, TEMA, HUD and other agencies, MHC has been coordinating homeless disaster response countywide. We continue to seek additional resources and programs that might be made available to the pre-flood homeless population as well as the many newly homeless individuals and families in our city. In particular, we are seeking funds for case management services for those who have received housing vouchers.
To help the Red Cross and Lipscomb University close the shelter on May 18, the Homelessness Commission organized a mini-Project Homeless Connect (PHC) event on May 17. This mini-PHC processed each participant through the Vulnerability Index, determining how vulnerable each individual is if he/she continues living on the street. A second step connected every participant with a case manager. Case management is the key to helping people move successfully toward self-sufficiency. In a third step, each person was given an option for housing or shelter. As part of that process, the Commission helped individuals apply for the replacement of lost birth certificates, IDs and social security cards.
At the end of the one-day PHC event, of the roughly 100 homeless individuals at the Red Cross Shelter at Lipscomb University, 15 received housing vouchers, 28 (including 9 children) were housed for a free one-week stay in hotels thanks to the Gujarat Cultural Association (a hotel association) and about 55 individuals were given options to go to the Rescue Mission, the Campus for Human Development, Otter Creek Church of Christ and three other local churches. Only two individuals chose to go back on the street.
During that time, the Commission also posted a call for help on its Website at www.thekeyalliance.org for emergency donations and to date has received $2,020.
The Metropolitan Homelessness Commission has not been involved in the establishment of a homeless campground that was erected in the Cane Ridge area in Antioch. It is a private venture. The city has notified the property owner that the camp is in violation of zoning and given the owner 30 days to have the encampment removed. Currently we are working with the Mayor’s Office to determine if and what any additional official response to the Tent City in Antioch is going to be. As part of that process, the Mayor’s Office has asked us to go out to the camp and get a clear picture of the population who is living there at this point in time, which MHC did on Tuesday, June 8.
FEMA has also decided to set up a mobile disaster response center in the Hickory Hollow Mall area, taking their lead from the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission regarding all homelessness issues.
A big thank you goes out to all service providers and congregations who have assisted the MHC. Without our partners, we would not have been able to respond so swiftly.
Agency Spotlight: Oasis Center –
Serving Homeless Youth
Oasis Center is Nashville’s only local service provider offering comprehensive assistance to homeless youth ages 13-21.
Hal Cato, CEO and president of Oasis Center said the center’s mission is to help young people create positive change in their lives.
“We have three goals for all young people we work with, number one is that they experience and have access to safety,” Cato said. “That’s physical, emotional or social safety or all of it. Because young people a lot of times define safety differently than we do.”
The second goal is that Oasis Center is committed to giving young people connections with caring adults and supportive peers. And third, Oasis Center creates opportunities for young people to take direct action to improve their lives.
“For one youth, that may look like getting the courage to ring the doorbell and come off the street into the drop-in center and move out of the camps; for another young person that could be being the first in their family to go to college,” Cato said. “Generally we’re working with those young people who are most at risk of not transitioning into a healthy adulthood.”
Oasis Center started in 1970 and has two shelters. One, located on Music Row, is a two-to-three-week shelter for youth ages 13-17. The goal of that shelter is to reunite young people with their families or, if that’s impossible, find other permanent housing options. The second shelter is a transitional housing opportunity for youth ages 18-21 (it will soon expand to ages 17-21), which has been at the Charlotte Avenue location for one and a half years.
Last year, Oasis Center served a total of 185 residents and built relationships with more than 1,900 young people. The biggest issue for youth coming to the Oasis Center is disconnection. Many come from violent situations, dysfunctional families, school problems and many are homeless or on the verge of homelessness.
Young people without homes do not stand out. They often do not consider themselves as being homeless because they sleep on couches with friends or relatives rather than on the street. Michelle Hall, Oasis Center’s director of transitional living, said there are three different portals of entry.
Street outreach workers go out to feeding programs and other events and network with the adult homeless population to find young people who need help. The adult homeless population is very protective of youth because they know how hard street life is and want young people to have a chance at a better life.
The second place of entry is the outreach center on Charlotte Avenue, which is available Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The third portal of entry is the transitional housing program, which now offers 10 beds.
“The transitional program is tailored to where young people are,” Hall said, adding that Oasis Center requires participants to work on job readiness/employment skills, education, life skills and wellness. While enrolled in the transitional living program, young people are expected not to use alcohol and drugs, but they do not have to be clean to enter the program.
Many kids blend in and become invisible to society.
“I don’t think people are aware that there is a homeless youth problem in Nashville,” Hall said, echoing Cato’s words that the kids that Oasis Center serves are truly disconnected from their support systems.
“By the time a young person gets to the street, they’re probably out of school for a while,” Hall said.
For more information on the Oasis Center visit www.oasiscenter.org.
News Briefs:
Where to Find Help is now available at www.thekeyalliance.org/findhelp. It is the most comprehensive directory for homeless services in Davidson County. The Key Alliance urges service providers to give feedback on their entries or if they are not listed, they can contact us directly through the Website or by emailing
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. As a next step, The Key Alliance is working on a condensed print version of Where to Find Help.
The Key Alliance has heard from the community and knows that many people are interested to learn about long-term solutions to homelessness. We are willing to come out to speak to your organization, your business, your congregation, and your neighborhood. Please contact us at 615-517-7000 to schedule a meeting or email us at
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.
2,077 public school children were registered as being homeless during the past school year, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Public School system. This signifies an increase of 30% over the previous school year.
You can follow The Key Alliance on Facebook and Twitter now. Read our blog at www.thekeyalliance.wordpress.com or you can click on the links on our Website at www.thekeyalliance.org.
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To donate online, click on the "Join The Key Alliance" button.
The Key Alliance is a
501(c)3 nonprofit organization that partners with the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission to bring together the community to collaborate around permanent solutions to homelessness in Nashville.
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Upcoming Events:
Project Arts Connect runs through March 2
Project Arts Connect is a event hosted by the Metro Arts Commission and The Key Alliance who are collaborating with The Contributor newspaper and Room In The Inn to exhibit artwork by Nashville artists who have been affected by homelessness. The show is exhibited at the Metro Arts Gallery, on the 4th floor of the Metro Office Building, 800 Second Ave. South. The exhibit is free and open to the public and will run through March 2.
Project Homeless Connect on March 28
The Key Alliance is partnering with the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission to host the fourth annual Project Homeless Connect event on March 28, 2012, at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. We are seeking 500 volunteers. To volunteer, please sign up at Hands on Nashville.
Run for the Homeless on May 12
The second annual Run for the Homeless, a 5K walk/run through Downtown Nashville will take place on May 12, 2012. Stay tuned for more details.
Community Calendar
The Key Alliance hosts a new feature on its Website: A Community Calendar (view tab on the left). Service providers are invited to email details of their events and happenings they would like to be listed on our Community Calendar to
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.
The Contributor goes to twice monthly
On Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, The Contributor, Nashville's successful street newspaper, will publish two issues per month. "In a time when print media is on the decline, street newspapers all around the world have seen major increases in distribution. The Contributor, now the highest-distributing street newspaper in North America, is a leader in the global street newspaper movement’s success. Thanks to the hard work and determination of its vendors and staff, as well as the generosity of its donors, The Contributor has grown exponentially over the last two years, enabling approximately one-third of the paper’s vendors to earn enough money to obtain housing." - Andrew Krinks, The Contributor's editor, in a recent press release.
Volunteer Award
The Key Alliance is proud to announce that our volunteer, Ben Morton, was honored with the Phyllis M. Frank Volunteer Award by the Nashville Coaltion for the Homeless for his outstanding efforts to help the local homeless community. Read the press release here.
New initiative launched called Adopt A Unit
The Key Alliance, in partnership with the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission, has launched a new program called Adopt A Unit that invites congregations to help formerly homeless individuals establish a household.
For more information, click here.
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The next MHC meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 2, 2012, at 9:30 a.m. in the Sonny West Conference Room of the Howard Office Building (Fulton Complex), 700 Second Ave. South.
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A Summary Report of the Committee on Police/Homeless Issues of the MHC is posted here.
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Adopt A Meter Program
 The Key Alliance has partnered with NashVitality to promote its Adopt A Meter program.
The program places refurbished "parking" meters in high foot traffic areas Downtown. All change collected will benefit homeless outreach with the goal to place people into Housing First. For a $1,000 sponsorship, contact Clifton Harris at 862-6401 or email him at
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.
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The Key Alliance launched a Speaker's Bureau program. We are available to speak to groups larger than 10 members including businesses, neighborhood associations, civic groups and congregations.
Contact Judy Tackett at
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to set up YOUR meeting.
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To date the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission and MDHA have been able to connect 37 homeless individuals who lost everything in the May floods with Section 8 Housing vouchers. The Homelessness Commission has closed the program. All Section 8 Voucher applicants have to go through MDHA's Secion 8 Office at 620 Dew Street.
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If you would like to be included on our volunteer e-mail list for special events and other opportunities, or sign up for our newsletter, please contact Judy Tackett at
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For media inquiries
call Judy Tackett at 517-7000.
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