Metro Council approves Safe Haven Family Shelter funding, highlighting families experiencing homelessness
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Metro leaders said that they wouldn’t close any more homeless encampments until there is enough housing for the people living in them, but in the meantime, even more encampments are popping up around the city.
The latest is an encampment behind the Walmart at One Hundred Oaks. There are thousands of unhoused people in the Metro Nashville area, including children, and finding housing for them isn’t easy.
“Often the headlines that you see are not about families, but families experiencing homelessness, it’s a large need in our city,” explained Grant Winter, the Chief Program Officer with Safe Haven Family Shelter of Nashville.
Currently, families make up about five percent of the homeless population in Davidson County. Although that may seem like a low number, advocates said the need is great.
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“Families that have entered into our city’s coordinated entry system and placed on the ‘By-Name Lists’ has more than doubled over the last four years,” Winter stated. “That number right now is hovering at a little over 400 families who are in need of housing and shelter support.”
Coordinated Entry referrals are made using the Homeless Management Information System, and Coordinated Entry priority lists (By-Name Lists) are maintained using the Homeless Management Information System.
This month, Mayor Freddie O’Connell and the Metro Council approved a resolution to give $436,400 from the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, through the Office of Homeless Services, to Safe Haven Family Shelter. This money is for the provision of hotel rooms across the Nashville area for emergency alternative shelter for families with children.
“{It} provides us the opportunity to be able to shelter more families at one time. We can’t add more rooms to our on-site shelter, but what we can do is if we have the funding will be able to work with our hotel partners to keep adding more hotel rooms.”
Winter explained that for the past four years, the organization has been working with two main hotel partners to provide transitional housing for those wanting to get off the streets and are waiting for housing to become available. He added that families’ average stay in the hotel ranges from 90-100 days.
Now, they are adding another hotel partner to help fill the demand.
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Safe Haven says they can provide rooms for 80 families over 12 months with the new funds.
“When you’re dealing with the trauma of going through homelessness and you don’t have that foundation and your wondering where your kid is, whether they are well and if they are being taken care of, just adds to the trauma,” explained Drew Freeman, the CEO of Safe Haven.
If you are someone you know needs this program, the Safe Haven Family Shelter is only taking referrals and applications through Nashville’s Coordinated Entry System (CES) at Metro Social Services. They ask you to call 615-862-6444 to be connected with services.
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