By Allie Feinberg, Knoxville News Sentinel
Knoxville and Knox County residents can have a say in how to the city can best use $15 million from the federal government to serve low- and moderate-income residents. Feedback will directly influence the long-term plan on housing and homelessness.
The meetings will take place from 10 a.m.-noon Sept. 4 and 6-8 p.m. Sept. 10 at the City of Knoxville Public Works Service Center, 3131 Morris Ave.
Community members who are unable to attend the meetings can fill out a survey, which is available in English and Spanish. They are open until Oct. 31.
Feedback from the meetings will go into the Knoxville-Knox County Office of Housing Stability’s 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan, which will serve as a roadmap.
Rising home and rental prices is a leading cause of homelessness. City leaders have been working with developers and building their own affordable apartment complexes to help.
Over 40% of people who lost their home from April to June were unable to find an affordable alternative, according to the Knoxville Homeless Management Information System’s community dashboard on homelessness.
Only 7% reported they were homeless because of mental health or substance abuse problems.
How community members can give input on Knoxville’s housing
Justice Knox, an interfaith community advocacy group, pushed for a seat at the table with city and county officials, especially on housing issues. They want one of the consolidated plan’s goals to be “functional zero homelessness” for certain populations.
Functional zero homelessness means the number of people experiencing homelessness is fewer than number of people utilizing the community’s resources. In order to do so, Justice Knox leaders say, the community needs the political will to change up the status quo, public-private collaboration and access to more housing.
Residents will be asked what the city needs in terms of:
- Affordable housing
- Preventing and ending homelessness
- Economic development
- Neighborhood revitalization
- Public infrastructure improvements
- Public services
City officials will present their findings Jan. 28 and are expected to release their draft consolidated plan in April.
Knoxville has $6.3 million from the federal government to spend this year
Knoxville is finishing out its existing five-year consolidated plan, which covered 2019-2024. The Knoxville City Council in June approved how the federal allocation will be spent in fiscal year 2024-2025:
- 83% for affordable housing: This could be used to help low-income and moderate-income people and to house those experiencing homelessness.
- 8% for reducing and preventing homelessness: This will go toward emergency shelter services, street outreach and rapid-rehousing.
- 5% for grant administration.
- 4% for economic development: This could be used for workforce development, such as programs to eliminate barriers to entering the construction industry.
- 0.5% for design and technical assistance in redevelopment areas: This will support nonprofit organizations in redevelopment areas.
That’s in addition to $8 million in local money Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon set aside in the city’s budget for housing, which will go toward developing new rental options.
View the original story here.
