And so this graphic walks you through what we call the coordinated entry system.

But that that is again just how folks experiencing homelessness access the system are assessed using locally what we call the universal housing assessment, or then prioritized and then referred to appropriate housing interventions.

We've made huge improvements to this coordinated entry system over the past three years, improving our assessment process and ensuring what we call the by name list, which is uh real-time registry of everyone in our community who has been assessed, but making sure that it's actually representative of the folks who are experiencing homelessness in our community.

Um this is how the system is designed to work, but we understand that it's um not flawless.

So people fall off at every stage of this system, unfortunately.

And there are interim supports along the way, such as um shelters and mental health and addiction supports, uh, but those resources have very limited capacity in our community, so they're not able to fully support the needs of our system.

Uh next slide.

So I won't share all of the statistics.

We did recently publish a state of homelessness report.

It can be found on our website, and then Brooke has actually some copies of it back there for for you council folks.

But um, it kind of dives in deep dives into the the data.

But I do want to highlight a couple of statistics.

So there are over a thousand people experiencing homelessness in our 11 county region on any given night.

Um a two-bedroom unit in uh at fair market rent in the Chattanooga area requires a job paying $27.42 an hour.

Um, and then 76% of local jobs pay an average wage that is less than that.

Um, so it would require at least three full-time minimum wage jobs to be to not be rent burdened in our community.

And 72% of households experiencing homelessness on our by name list report having some kind of disabling condition.

Um, and uh disability benefits are often falling hundreds of dollars short of monthly rent payment amounts.

So the bottom line is that homelessness is driven by housing costs, low wages, and health, not individual failures.

Um, homelessness is not just impacting those folks experiencing it, but it has real consequences for workforce participation, the local economy, and our public systems.

Uh next slide.

Um, so there are three main housing intervention intervention types in our community.

Um, those are emergency shelter, which is intended to serve individuals and families for short periods of time while they're getting connected to long-term support.

Um, our community currently has a gap of 800 emergency shelter beds to meet the need of those folks experiencing homelessness.

Um, rapid rehousing programs intend to serve individuals and families who need some short-term rental assistance and sometimes case management support.

Um, we currently see a gap of about a hundred beds in rapid rehousing programs, and then permanent supportive housing, which is our the um intervention that that serves our most vulnerable population.

So it's the long-term support with the intensive case management.

And we currently have a gap of about 300 beds in our permanent supportive housing programs.

Um next slide.

So this graphic demonstrates the system as it's intended to work.

As you can see there between uh where individuals are waiting for housing and the limited housing units, we see a bottleneck.

Um, and this is just causing folks to stay on this limited available housing is causing folks to stay on that by name list uh much longer than um than a lot of them need to, which is ultimately um making their situation worse.

We know um the the length of time that somebody experiences homelessness is is directly related with uh to to what interventions they're gonna need to be able to ultimately stably house them.

Um next slide.

So this is the same um same graphic, but it shows how prevention and diversion projects positively benefit our system.

So um prevention and diversion projects are um ultimately uh set up to either prevent someone's homelessness or rapidly resolve homelessness when somebody enters into homelessness.

So we do have prevention programs that are able to assist households before they enter homelessness, providing financial assistance, case management, and legal assistance where appropriate to ensure that folks stay in their housing.

Umersion programs provide housing navigation and flexible funding to quickly resolve homelessness and move them back to stability before they they spend too much time experiencing homelessness.

So both prevention and diversion funds and programs address the issue of homelessness upstream, serving folks before they get to a place where stable housing is more difficult to maintain.

And as our system continues to work to house the most vulnerable prevention and diversion funds are and will continue to be all the more important to invest in.

Uh next slide.

So though we've worked really hard to improve our system, and we do have one of the most efficient systems in the country.

Uh the system still feels a lot of pressure, and unfortunately, it's not able to serve every household experiencing homelessness in a timely manner.

So the system is very constrained.

Um, we do have a limited housing inventory in all of our program types.

Um, there is an insufficient number of truly affordable housing units for no to low-income households, and there's a major gap in bed numbers for emergency shelter and medical respite beds.

Um, along with that, the federal landscape is shifting greatly right now.

So federal funding priorities are changing and are no longer going to be designed to serve the most vulnerable folks.

Um, with new federal funding guidelines, programs will have to shift focus from housing to um increasing employment, income pathways, and um uh extra emphasis on treatment and recovery programs.

And while housing first has been an evidence-based solution to homelessness, federally funded programs will no longer operate under the housing first model.

So, what does this mean for our community?

Um, loss or changes to federal funding will devastate our permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programs, as well as our coordinated entry and homeless management information system.

All things that are proven to be effective for ending homelessness in our community.

Um we must invest more heavily in diversion and prevention efforts to reduce inflow into our homelessness system.

Um flexible funding options are imperative for meeting the needs of every household experiencing homelessness and the current structure of our continuum of care with the homeless coalition serving as the backbone agency is essential for moving people experiencing homelessness into stable housing.

So, in a constrained and evolving federal environment, local coordination and flexible investment are more critical than ever.

Next slide.

So through our strategic partnership with the City of Chattanooga, the homeless coalition has been able to expand our reach as the lead agency, moving away from just our HUD-designated roles.

Um, so we've done that through data and operational support.

We've really been able to increase our capacity to build a system that works more efficiently and really take uh a deeper dive into uh the data that we're seeing in our community and looking at trends to um to address homelessness in an appropriate way for our community.

Um this partnership with the city also funds the cold weather shelter that is operated by the CHAPTER Foundation.

Um, and it funds what we call the housing forward fund, which is a flexible funding pool that exists to pay one-time payments that are often barriers to long-term stable housing, such as uh rental and utility deposits, administrative fees, application fees, moving costs, pet deposits, um, things that generally just help somebody get in the door, but oftentimes uh cost more than someone is able to afford.

Um so the housing forward fund serves to reduce trauma and the long-term impacts of homelessness, and it fills gaps for families who don't yet qualify for rapid rehousing or permanent supportive housing programs.

And that um to date is one of our most successful programs that we operate.

Um, over 40 local partners are able to access that fund um to move their clients into stable housing.

And with that, I will turn it over to Megan.

Hey everyone.

Megan Miles, do you uh can you go to the next slide?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Um, director of housing policy for the city.

And I'm here to just take a quick moment to talk about some of the upstream ways that the city is investing in long-term housing stability.

Oh, okay.

What I need to do.

Yeah.

Megan, you may have to lean into your mic.

Explain it a little bit.

Sorry, forgive me.

Um, so Megan Miles, Director of Housing Policy, and I am here to talk a little bit about some of the upstream ways that the city is investing in long-term housing stability.

Um, I'm excited to begin actually with an update on something that is new, which is our eviction prevention fund.

This is a rental assistance program that we've just launched in partnership with the homeless coalition with OSH, the Office of Family Empowerment, and Legal Aid of East Tennessee.

Um, as you may recall, thank you.

I'm in large part to Councilman Davis.

Um, the city allocated a million dollars in this year's budget amendment to go towards rental assistance.

Um, and this came just as state and federal funding for rental assistance that came out of the COVID era was expiring.

So it was very important because we knew that without additional resources that we would see more and more households falling into eviction in homelessness.

So, this is work that the city has been investing in since the beginning of the COVID era in collaboration with many community partners, including again legal aid of East Tennessee who provide legal services for households that are facing eviction.

But these efforts really evolved in response to a specific crisis and a very specialized set of funding.

And so we wanted to take a minute to really understand what worked very well over the last few years and also where their opportunities to evolve given kind of where our market is right now.

So we brought together a round table of partners who have been deeply involved in this work over the last few years to learn from them and to get their recommendations, and the result is a new eviction prevention fund that's built around a shallow but flexible rental assistance model.

Our goal with this fund is to provide early intervention to keep families in their homes and resolve crises before they lead to homelessness.

This is a best practice model.

It's much less disruptive for families because it avoids all of the challenges that can follow an eviction, like moving, losing community connections, struggling to find a new unit, especially in this market, and in some cases entering homelessness.

And so it's also significantly less expensive to prevent an eviction in this way than to rehouse someone after they lose their home.

Because of course, once a family is evicted, you have all of these costs that can really escalate, like back rent, legal fees, moving expenses, security deposits.

So if we're able to stabilize a household at the first sign of crisis, we are able to prevent much of that.

One of the things that we heard really clearly from our partners is that financial assistance alone is not enough.

And so this program really intentionally connects households to additional support.

We've built a coordinated referral process that links families to case management services, housing navigation, and legal assistance when needed.

And that allows us to better understand what caused the crisis, whether it's a job loss or medical bills or something else, and to work towards longer-term stability.

We've also strengthened our emphasis on data, so we want to better understand what's driving evictions locally and attract how households are doing after they receive assistance.

So this is for us is about being thoughtful and targeted with our resources and also continuously working to improve the program and our housing ecosystem.

At the same time, we are, of course, addressing the structural side of the problem, which is housing supply, as you've heard again and again.

Homelessness is fundamentally a problem of not having enough homes, and so when the supply is constrained at every income level, prices rise, pressure increases across the entire market.

Um the city is working to advance new units and incentivize affordable units through our pilot program, which incentivizes developers to include affordable units in all new housing projects.

We're also working very closely with the Tennessee Housing Development Agency to ensure that Chattanooga projects are competitive for low-income housing tax credits, which is the largest federal investment in affordable housing.

Those credits can bring millions of dollars per project into our community and allow us to achieve deep affordability levels that the city could not fund alone.

And so with that, I will turn it over to Casey to talk a little bit more about the direct work that we have.

Yeah, we need to get, I think, to Eric on Did you have a question?

I have a couple questions, but okay.

Well, I want to uh be mindful of the request that Councilman Clark made, although he stepped out for a minute.

I wanted to get to his guest, Eric Lovett Mayors.

I hope I'm pronouncing your name right, and I hope you can still hear us.

I can thank you so much.

Okay.

Uh well, sir, the the floor is yours.

If you wouldn't care, just uh um introduce yourself and and and we're happy to to hear from you this morning.

Uh well, thank you, uh, Councilman Davis and the entire council.

I've uh I'm originally uh from the South and I lived in Chattanooga for about 10 years, so I'm familiar.

It's great to see what you're doing.

I'm in San Diego, California now 14 years.

And starting an organization for homeless transitional age youth, and then some outlour outline demographics, and uh have been uh working with the city and the county, several cities over here, and really addressing homelessness.

And so I'm here today just uh to listen and to see what y'all are doing and possibly how I can lend any assistance and recommendation is what we've seen work, what has not worked, and boy, have we seen some things not work here, and we've also seen some things that work.

So thank you for letting me be a part.

Thank you, uh Eric.

Um, I like to play the video uh Rick of some of the work they're doing in transitional housing.

Is that right, Eric?

Is it that the term for it?

Okay.

I just want to want you all again.

This is a I want you to see what's working in other places of things that we have not implemented here.

And Eric is the expert in California for this and does consultant work.

Um here we go.

Awesome.

Thank you, uh Eric, for attending today.

Again, Eric is just founded Urban Street Angels as a ministry in Southern California.

He didn't talk a lot about the scope of what he does, but he partners with the Padres and Hilton, uh the Hilton Corporation out there and and rehabbing hotels, uh, just not for homelessness for youth, but just for what transitional housing could look like for women, uh, people who may be struggling with substance misuse in our community.

Um at the end of the day, I think those those are some of the root causes that may lead people into these uns, you know, unhouse situation.

And and uh anyway, I just wanted Eric to be here, uh, just kind of a subject matter expert as we go into discussion about what we're doing, what we're not doing, and then what we could be doing as we approach uh the issue of unhoused individuals in Chattanooga.

Yeah, thank you for that, and thank you, Eric, for for being with us.

Um Councilman Clark, it sounds like um kind of the work they're doing out there is similar to what the state of Tennessee does with its bright futures program for uh youth that are aging out of foster care um that don't have family support support in the community.

Um Councilman Clark, it sounds like um kind of the work they're doing out there is similar to what the state of Tennessee does with its bright futures program for uh youth that are aging out of foster care um that don't have family support support in the community, and so here in Chattanooga, um I think it's primarily Chambliss and the partnership for family children and adults, um have several different independent living complexes for um for those youth that are located here in Chattanooga, aging out of foster care, and then Carta um is working with Chambliss in particular to provide free bus fare for those youth um and also um some training in um not just how to navigate public transit, but um, I think also you know, working towards um transportation independence, which you know, along with housing independence, those kind of go hand in hand.

Right.

Um, and so it does sound a little a little familiar.

We do have a little bit of that going, I think, and something to build on.

Um Davis Launchpad, uh Chattanooga Room in the end, the Oxford House, yes, are multiple organizations that have a very similar model.

Right.

And I would also like to add that partnership aside from their foster care program and um partnership and lapaz both have um youth 18 to 24 year old homeless specific programs that are operating under that very similar, it sounds like transitional housing models, so they both have separate transitional housing, and they are working directly with young folks who are experiencing homelessness, um, not just the false repair programs.

And then I didn't forget about you over there, Councilman Elliott.

Um did you say he has another meeting to get to all right?

Um, well, are there any um I know you have a question?

Are there any questions at this point?

Uh we can start with councilman Elliott, just of uh folks we've heard from so far.

Any any council members with any questions or comments?

This board is open conversation.

Is it open, Rick?

It's it's except open.

Are you fine, Rob?

Yeah, go ahead.

I have a couple questions, and I don't know who this is directed to, but I understand the services, but something I want to better understand.

What are the gaps in uh everything dealing with homelessness and services provided?

What's missing?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think um there are gaps in every kind of intervention type.

So we we have major gaps, our largest gap right now would be in um emergency shelter beds, and and I know people get a little a little jumpy when we use that word, but um, but safe places to sleep at night.

That is like our our major gap, um, and also uh the thing that is in my opinion, one of the most needed is providing somewhere safe for folks who are experiencing homelessness to sleep every night um before entering into a program, whether that be a transitional model program, uh, which we have major gaps there.

We also have um about a hundred uh bed gaps in our rapid rehousing, which is that short-term intervention program, and then we have about 300 bed gap in our permanent supportive housing, so those um longer programs that provide the more intensive case management.

So um, yeah, there are gaps at every every stop.

Um we have uh dedicated outreach programs, street outreach programs, but um but there we don't have enough there to adequately serve, um, especially not when we're looking at um you know, outside of of Chattanooga city limits, uh, we're definitely short on outreach teams there.

So uh there are gaps across the entire system.

So from what I'm hearing, the biggest gap are emergency shelters and beds.

Yes.

How many beds are we missing?

Um about 800.

Okay.

And how many shelters or slash beds do we currently have available?

Stephen, do you know the exact emergency shelter bed number slide?

It's in the 200s.

I need to get the exact number.

224.

224.

Okay.

Could you speak to how federal policy kind of exacerbates that constraint?

So if if the understanding, Kevin, if if I'm understanding correctly, um our biggest way we can house people, and I think Casey and I have talked about this one, is permanent housing or through section eight vouches, correct?

Correct.

And they're pretty much on a lock.

That's right.

Correct.

And so as a community, we need to know this.

Our biggest tool to get people to permanent housing pretty much off the table.

And pretty much your formula, which you guys talked about, is completely flipped on his head.

Correct.

Where 80% of those funds were for rapid housing, and now it's like 20%, correct?

Correct, yes.

Saved your life.

But I think it's important that everybody gets that because you don't want to go try to build emergency kind of units at a scale to meet the demand if you're if you're not confident in the ability to move people through, right?

For it to serve as that temporary emergent shelter while we're transitioning into the situation.

Here's the question I have.

Even before this problem got exacerbated by the change of federal policies, what was that gap before this?

That's kind of what I want to get my head wrapped around.

Because you know, yes, it's gotten worse, but what was that gap beforehand?

And who's to say is ever going to go back?

This could be our new norm.

We don't know what things are going to look like from federal policy for the next half of the years of 2028, and you don't know what it's gonna look like afterward.

Uh, but how can we understand what a baseline when things were normal?

Yeah, I mean, I think those gaps um have been fairly consistent.

We we are seeing big changes, um, but but I think we have at least in my time at the homeless coalition experienced similar number gaps.

Um, I think at different times we have had increased investment in one program type or another program type, which is fantastic.

Um, but it's going to take increased investment in all of the program types to truly um truly solve the problem.

So, real quick example the when we invest too much in rapid rehousing programs, people who really need permanent supportive housing start getting served by rapid rehousing programs, which ultimately does not serve them well, and they end up back on the streets.

So it takes investment in all of those interventions for us to actually see refugees.

You have to excuse me.

I do have to leave here soon, so if I'm pushing through some of these questions, that's fine.

You're fine.

Uh but what I'm understanding, I think I heard you say this.

The numbers we're seeing now were some of the same numbers we were seeing beforehand.

Yeah, yeah, as far as like gaps in services goes, yes.

Okay, perfect.

Uh I know you guys keep a lot of data on this about if we had to give like an approximate number, but how many people do we feel like are currently unhoused?

Um a little over a thousand.

Okay.

Is that for 11 counties?

Um, yes.

Uh the number for Hamilton County would be probably eight hundred eight hundred-ish is what we've seen.

Um, we're still kind of solidifying numbers from this year's point time count, but um, anywhere from about six to eight hundred is what we see on the buy name list.

Uh that number fluctuates week to week.

And I think final question for now.

Um I remember a few years ago I sat at a meeting where some of our CPD officers would, they were patrolling, they would try to keep an idea of who was in the community, who wasn't, and they were seeing a strong influx of what I think the best way I can know how to say it, transient folks who are um unhoused, people who are coming from other places, they were seeing a lot of folks coming from places like Florida or whatnot.

Are we still seeing a large influx of people moving here from other places who are unhoused?

It's on it's on average, I think we're seeing about 10 to 13 percent each month.

Um that's no, not increased.

Just set say there's 50 people that was assessed for the month, 10% of those are from somewhere other than immediately Chattanooga.

So it's not a huge amount, um, and we see that from like the North Georgia area, which is part of our metropolitan area.

We are the metropolitan city for North Georgia, so seeing those come over to Chattanooga is not unreasonable.

Um, but we get one or two from Florida, one or two from Knoxville, one or two from Atlanta.

Okay, you know, it it is not a huge influx, and most of the folks that do come here are coming uh or report that they're coming here for a reason.

Maybe they came here for a relationship or they came here for to take care of a family member, and that family member then passed away, they no longer have a place to stay.

So, like we're diving into that data at McKinsey is and we try we're keeping up with it every month, kind of tracking that, but it's not a huge amount of transient.

That's good.

The last question I'll put I was like, come on.

Um, what is your proposal for us to close this gap?

Thank you.

That's what I've been waiting on us to get on like we have to spend.

Oh, this time I'm talking about data.

Thank you for that.

That was my question.

Okay, let me go ahead.

Go ahead.

What is your proposal for us closing this gap for uh emergency uh shelter beds?

For emergency shelter beds, um, I think we have a couple of different options there.

I know the city has explored the option of uh an emergency shelter.

Um I I think I'm also a proponent for scattered site shelter.

I think um uh kind of taking um a transitional approach, uh not necessarily transitional housing, but more of a transitional approach to emergency shelter could be um really successful for our community.

Um we could do so in kind of a scattered site ways, so we have smaller shelters uh spread throughout the community with really intensive services that are ensuring that the folks staying in that shelter are um receiving the services that they want and need to ultimately move them into housing.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Sure.

Otherwise, we're believed from the side.

So when we're talking about gaps, I think we have to address the community buy-in for any ideas we those.

I've seen ideas proposed and talked about, advocated for what community time and time again shoots those ideas down.

So there's not enough community buy-in and homeless community here that we have which had negative work to receive those ideas and those resources and those clients.

So we have to find a way to circumvent that first.

We don't want that in our community.

Doesn't matter.

And to that point, I get that.

And I'll say this, and I think many of my colleagues would agree.

Government's not good to do a lot of stuff, right?

And so I heard here that everybody's been looking at the city to figure out how to close this gap, particularly with a shelter.

Are there any other partners who may be running point on this?

Is the question I have.

And is there a way where we may not need to run point, but we can be great supporters of it, whether we're funding, whether we're property, whatever that looks like, instead of us leaving point on it, because when you get government to lead point of it, all nine of these seats have constituencies they have to answer to.

And that's when things just freeze.

Um that's I hear you, and I agree.

But how do we figure out how to get to that solution as easy as possible while minimizing the bureaucracy and the politics that takes place on this diets?

I think uh some of the work with the regional cooperative, which is the instancy that is the homeless outreach in your communities, all nine of you.

Um we are working on that in a way of saying let's create a space each week.

People that are experiencing homelessness can come, people who are not experiencing homelessness in those areas can come and be with one another in relationship.

It's the relationship.

That's the gap.

That's the gap that we call relational gap between people that are experiencing homelessness and people from homelessness.

And so, what that looks like practically in practice is we have partnered with the local mobile shower ministries in town to say, hey, homeless outreach is happening in this area on this day at this time, you bring that multiple shower unit and be present in this area at the same time that we are, so we can encourage people that are in the area to access that names when they get there.

They don't only get a shower and only get hygiene, a lot of the places where this is happening, they also get some food, new clothing, other things that are provided there.

But the most important thing that happens is that they meet people that are within their community that have said, yes, it is worth my time to be in this place and to see this person and to care about them.

That's the most valuable thing that happens there.

That's where the real work begins.

It's no longer about basic needs, making sure people are fed, making sure people are clean because those things are taken care of.

If it goes to the next level of the hierarchy of need of saying, hey, what else is going on?

The people that form these relationships with these clients, with these people experiencing homelessness, can get the work done quicker than I ever say I hear that you're struggling with substance misuse.

We have a connection for that.

And we're going to connect you with that.

And people are going to rehab and they're getting clean and they're coming back six months, four months, whatever, a year long program, they're coming back and they're clean and they're ready to put some other parts of the line.

So this is the gap.

And that's not something to look at city council and say, you guys do that, we're saying it's already happening.

It's been happening for a long time.

And so to create support to create more opportunities like that in your districts, you go a long way.

So Joe, what would that support look like?

Coming what can council do to support that work that you've identified there?

To identify local groups within each of your districts that would say that's a worthy opportunity for me to make a Thursday morning or Tuesday morning or Monday morning, whichever day it is that we're rolling through, encouraging people to come to those opportunities, find a group that's willing to get oriented, trained to operate the mobile shower unit, or come and provide another service.

How does that move the close the gap though?

That's what I want to figure out.

And I'm sorry for jumping out, but how do we close the gap?

Because we've had that conversation for a long time.

And I'm hearing from my experts that the gap is the shelter, how does that close the gap?

Yeah, because when the conversation comes back around shelter, you now have a group of informed people in Hickson and Brain in North Shore and Sigma Mountain area that are saying, hey, this is something that matters to me now because it's not just a topic, it's a person.

And you have people that are showing up and advocating for those things in a way that they haven't been before.

Councilman, let me let me say this.

I think one way we can close the gap, every one of us probably knows pastors or churches in our area that could stand in the gap.

I mean, that's what we're called to do, right?

Is to stand in the gap.

Uh and I hate to say this, but I think there's probably some churches out there that wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole because this is the hard work.

Yeah, where the nitty meets the gritty.

So, but I think there are some local churches, and I think that's probably a path that we could explore.

Every one of us on the council probably knows, maybe just one or two, maybe that's all it takes.

One or two in each district that could reach out and say, Let's figure out a way that we can partner so that the house can meet the unhoused and figure out that we're all the same.

Yeah, and how how can we help?

Um what we what we've got to figure out is the pipeline and shut the pipeline off, right?

I would like to know, and and Eric may be able to help with this.

What's the correlation between individuals that wind up unhoused later in life and those that are unhoused as a youth?

I'll be honest, I've never even really thought about the unhoused youth.

If you start out of house, there's a probably a good chance you're gonna live your whole life like that, I'm assuming.

Because listen, being housed is a is a different society than being unhoused.

And when you get comfortable and you get ingrained in that unhoused society, it's a hard transition to now paying rent to living next door to somebody to you know, uh figuring out all that.

So, Eric, do you see any correlation between um adults that go back to being or starting out as unhoused youth, and is that where we start?

I mean, really and truly, who could turn down housing youth, right?

I mean, that would be seemed like to me the low-hanging fruit.

But go ahead.

Yeah, that that's a that's a great question, and you you you bring up the correlation perfectly because what we've seen in Southern California is uh in our area is that close to 60 percent of those experiencing homelessness experienced it the first time between the age of 18 and 21 years old.

And once you become down that track of what we uh say chronic homelessness, which is a year or more, um then it's hard to get out of that track.

So you're on the right, you're on the right track of let's say let's focus there so we can really you know really start addressing that pipeline.

And and one more thing in case um I had met with the director out at Moccus and Ben, and uh, you know, I I was curious just to how many homeless we have in our area that actually come from the mental health facility once they are dismissed because look, when they walk through those doors, they're just like you and I, they're they're free to go.

Uh I didn't really like the answer that I got when I asked how do we know they're getting back to where they came from?

Uh is there a way that we can start or or or and you may be able to answer this.

Do we do we have a relationship with Moccus and Ben and we understand that we do know that 100% of the people that are dismissed, because we're regional, right?

This is a regional facility.

They're coming from all over.

Yeah.

You know, my question is, and I still really haven't got a good answer.

How many of them are winding up here?

You know, the and the problem with a lot of mental health patients is when when they're on their meds, they're they're fine and they're good.

And they they're thinking, I'm in pretty good shape.

I really don't need these meds now.

And when they get off the meds, they revert back to the condition that they were in before.

Uh and it uh and I get it maybe a little uncomfortable talking about all that, but I think you know, that's where we have to have the hard conversations and and feel a little uncomfortable talking about it.

But you know, have have we reached out to Moccas and Ben to try to better track how many of those individuals do actually wind up back where you know in their hometown where they came from how many of them possibly stay here?

Uh, because what I was told is that they hire an Uber driver and the Uber driver turns in a receipt uh to you know where their hometown was.

Well, so what if that Uber driver lets him out on 10th Street before he gets to wherever he says he's going?

You know, there's in my opinion, there's really just I haven't seen a good way that they're or at least that they're offering a good way to track to make sure that they get back.

And with the facility being here in Chattanooga, is that contributing to the pipeline?

Um so I can say, or I'll I'll let Kevin speak on the relationship with Moccus and Ben because I think they've had conversations, but as it comes to folks that we find in the community, it's not very often.

Um, but when they do, we help facilitate them getting back to to their hometown.

Um if if they're presented to my office and say, hey, I I need to get back home, we verify that that they have a home to go to and we help them get back.

Um, but it's very few that come through my office that say, hey, I was left here, um, I got released and I had nowhere to go.

But if they do, we assist them with with getting back to where they need to go.

Whether that means we drive them to Knoxville or we drive them to Athens, those have been a few of the places, but we do that.

We help.

Well, and that's the ones that have raised their hands saying I'd like to get back.

But how many are here that haven't raised their hands?

I guess is my I want to get to Judge Abels if I can.

Yeah.

I know you've seen some of this in your court.

Yeah, I was about to say, I don't know how you're getting contact with these people, but I'm getting contact with them weekly.

I mean, we have a large number of people who wind up uh uh basically dropped off on the streets, and then it doesn't take long for them to come into contact with law enforcement.

And uh and then that's why we're seeing them.

So uh uh it it's a a very frequent problem.

Uh and and and it's easy to identify some of these people because when they're arrested, there's addresses that they give.

And if the address is 11th street or if the address is some from out of the jurisdiction, then we know that hey, you know, well, where did this person come from?

You know, so you don't have to do a lot of research to uh to see that there are a number of people that are that are coming from outside of our jurisdiction that are finding themselves in conflict with the law uh and then coming to uh to uh general sessions court.

And we have we have started a program trying to get you know recognize these people and trying to get them back where they're from.

Uh and uh that's kind of how I became involved in this uh uh when we first started talking about this about a year ago, I guess.

Um, you know, what what can we do to uh to to get these people to uh figure out where where these individuals are from and can we get them back where they where they have more community and a better chance for success.

Are you working directly with the city then, or is this just something y'all were doing in that's mayor wants?

Well, it's yeah, it's uh but but it's also through the uh special tax district.

I think that there's funding uh that that that's really where that where it came from.

So it really came from from you all uh I guess originally, but for the program that we have in the court system, we've had over a hundred individuals in the last year uh you know that that have been taken back to to where they were from, and we have not had we don't have a whole lot of uh of a repeat, at least arrest.

That doesn't mean that they haven't come back, but if they have come back, they haven't gotten in any trouble.

So uh uh we've had a pretty good success rate with with what we're trying to do.

Um, but um that's something to think about is is getting people back where they came from, and and from Mox and being um it's not just Moccus and being, you know, we have several providers here now, and when there's no providers, uh when there's few providers across the state, then you know we will continue to get people here and they will continue to fall through these cracks, I'm afraid, until we uh get some uh buy-in from the uh the facilities as well.

I mean, they could have you know they could change the law to take them back where where you came from, uh, but uh nobody has uh uh has made that effort yet that I'm aware of.

But okay.

And yes, sir, did you have a question or a comment?

I have concern about um we're going back to the the gaps and we're talking about numbers and whatnot.

Um your website and put through it, and I understand these numbers.

Is that coming from the pit count?

Is that where those numbers are established?

On there's there is pit count information on our website, but our buy name list uh dashboard that's kind of our real-time registry of numbers, and that's um the folks who are currently on the buy nameless, which is the folks who have been assessed with that housing assessment.

My concern here is like because I also my concern is that that number's too low.

And I'm I'm concerned when we talk about action moving forward, what's the plan?

What are the gaps and start putting numbers to those gaps?

And the city's gonna work off those numbers.

I really feel like those numbers really need to be accurate, or we need to plan for more.

Because you know, working out in the community, my feeling, and this is just a feeling and talking to other people who work out here.

I feel like that those numbers are low.

Yeah, and that's all due respect to you.

I don't I don't mean to criticize the work.

No, I mean the we are working to assess um folks who oftentimes are are trying not to.

See, but um we rely heavily on our outreach teams like Joe was talking about, but also we have um over 30 different what we call access points, and so those are places that folks are presenting.

Um yeah, I mean it's the the number is never going to be perfect, it is an imperfect number.

Um, but using our point and time count data and our bynameless data, we are confident that that is the most accurate count that we have ever had in our community.

We've worked really hard over the past three years to improve our system um in ways that is counting as many folks and serving as many folks as we possibly can, both through that point in time count, but also every day uh through our housing assessment, which is what that by nameless data is.

Yeah, thank you in the back there.

Yeah, yeah, um, I'm Stephen Hollow, the director of operations for the Hubble Establishment.

Something that I just wanted to submit uh to the council is uh I'm I'm grateful for the language around being very solutions focused.

I think that's certainly what McKenzie and I uh have been interested in in hearing, and so any way that we can partner in doing that, we would love to keep having conversations.

I think something that I'll just say is what we know for a fact is that no one solution is going to be the silver bullet to this, so it's gonna take investment and lots of different kinds of programming, including but not limited to the kinds that McKenzie has described.

I think part of it is as Joe is saying, cultivating that understanding as a community that uh the it's not these people who are living in it's our neighbors, right?

But also there's been talk um about how government can get involved without establishing a large unwieldy bureaucracy, and I think um something I'll humbly submit is that uh one great way that uh government could get involved is simply by uh funding.

That's a government does seem to be great at writing checks.

Uh and so if if there's something that we can do to cultivate that trust to make that a feasible opportunity, we have a lot of I've worked in several different COCs across the country.

Something I'm I'm proud to say about Chattanooga is that we are blessed to have some really wonderful subject matter subject matter experts, many of whom are in this room.

Something I'll say um just for the council to be aware is that across the nation, uh HUD outlines certain performance measures, how they grade each COC according to their performance.

Uh something that I'll let you all know is that Chattanooga Southeast Tennessee is in the 90th percentile across the nation for the time spent on housed up to housing.

So we're doing better than 90% of other COCs in minimizing that time.

Additionally, we're doing better than 80% of COCs in the number of folks who were housed and then returned to housing.

So something that I'll say is that even as resource constrained as we've been, we're still able to perform at a very high level nationally.

And I think something that the primary issue that from our perspective we see in making that the 100th percentile is simply being less resource resource constrained than we are currently.

Um the gentleman's point up front, um, as far as the data sampling, um, we would love to, as Mackenzie said, expand our outreach.

We know that those numbers are never gonna be perfect, just like any sort of sampling problem.

Um however, uh one thing I'll say to the gentleman um is just uh we even though we know the numbers are low, we want to make progress on the ones that we know are out there.

Um, and that if we can hopefully uh address the 782 or whatever it is that are in Hamilton County today, um, then hopefully, if there's actually 200 more, the programs will be in place that they'll already have access to what they need.

So all that to say moving forward, if if there's a way that um council would uh be willing to continue partnering actively with folks in the city, our other subject matter experts in the room, the coalition to really invest in solutions that we know work, um, whether it's transitional models or permanent sportive housing.

Um we have the data, we're ready to partner, and we'd love for you to join us in that way.

Eric is good question.

Yeah, Eric, do you have a question for us online?

Yeah, I was just gonna ask, I know McKenzie mentioned this too, and the uh recommended housing program is twofold.

The first is uh Do you have a joint component with your RRH um which is also transitional housing?

And then my second question is hearing your uh your thoughts and what you're when you talk about chronic homelessness is what is China's partnership with Medi Cal in terms of transitional housing and mental health and substance abuse services, as we know that that has changed as of January 2026, as they support transitional housing.

So I was just curious because I've not heard about the medical portion, and that definitely relates to the mental health and substance.

Is Medical Medicare here?

Medicaid Okay, Eric, here it's called Medicaid.

Or 10 care, excuse me.

Um so the transitional slash RH programs, that is how our um youth or young adult housing programs, transitional housing programs are operating.

Um as far as transitional housing programs outside of our youth specific programs.

Um we have a number of programs that are serving extremely well in our community right now.

Um historically, they have been less involved in the works of the COC.

Uh, but as things have kind of shifted at the federal level, we have started having more conversations with them and working more closely with them.

And we do anticipate that um in the upcoming funding cycle, we will we're going to try to um expand what our federal funding to those transitional housing programs looks like, um, which will just get them more involved in in the COC work.

Tennessee is not a Medicaid expansion state, so we have a really hard time using Medicaid dollars for anything related to housing.

Yeah, sure.

So a few things I've just been listening and heard today, and the question I have, and it's not one that needs answered today, but one we need to think about is how do we help treat people with mental health issues, drug issues, and then get them a job and get them to housing.

I think that's just the root of the issue, and that's something we've got to we've got to solve.

Um so without uh a case manager, social worker, whatever, someone actively watching this person and walking through them or through the process with them.

Um it if they don't ensure that that person is continuing to receive the care that they need, they're just gonna run right back up where they are.

So that that's one thing uh I want us to think about as we do this working group is how how do we accomplish that?

Uh something I think I need maybe Kevin, this is uh a you thing or uh Casey, but a list of current uh city ordinances that we have related to uh whether it be homelessness or panhandling, um the complaints that I get out in my district are mainly about um the panhandling issue uh and the enforcement around that.

How do we enforce uh this and get them get them off of the interstate exits and that kind of thing?

Um because frankly, it's a lot and and I see a lot of different faces.

And so I think just us being right there on I75, there's a lot of people that are making a stop, payday moving on to the next exit down on I-75.

And so uh that's one thing I'll request from uh the administration is our current list of ordinances and uh related to homelessness and panhandling.

Um, and we do we do have uh homeless camps out in East Brainerd.

Um believe it or not, we do.

Um and I'll tell this quick story and why I care so much about this.

Um I was in Washington, DC recently.

Uh well, it was last winter, and uh my wife and I passed a person um who was just covered in blankets and it was no warmer than 20 degrees.

And that struck me, and I stopped and looked at my wife and I said, we're in the next we're in our nation's capital in the United States of America, and there is a person who is nearly freezing to death.

I said, that's unacceptable.

That's unacceptable in the United States of America in 2026 to see someone uh in that vulnerable of a state.

Um I think we have a responsibility to make sure that that doesn't happen.

So that that moved me uh to really finding a uh solution to this.

And you know, a lot of the times we hear, oh, it's just it's such a complicated issue, we don't know what to do.

Well, it's time we start finding a solution.

Um there's enough talk about it, and then now we we've got to, and why not Chattanooga, Tennessee?

Why not Chattanooga?

Why can't people look at us and say they're doing something right to get this this figured out?

Um so that that's my thing.

Um so yeah, whatever we can do uh to partner with you guys and um to Councilman Henderson's point is uh the church has got to get reinvolved.

Um the church has kind of been absent, I think, from this, and I'm uh a man of Christian faith, and I think it's uh one of our responsibilities to look after those who can't look after themselves.

So I encourage any uh of the pastors who are uh looking or watching this today to let's partner together and figure out this issue.

I am I want to piggyback something you said because it's why not Chattanooga a part of this experience today is for solutions, and um I want to hear more solutions in a strategic plan.

We're really really awesome at always circulating a problem.

We're gonna leave here today and we're not gonna have a solution.

I'm sorry.

But to his point, what do we do about it?

I see Nicole Heyman, who's our policy director.

Let's be actionable, right?

You know, the guy in the back, the CO said is it more funding requests to the city to build transitional housing.

Like, what is the action?

I'm so I've been on a council.

Well, our anniversary council uh for election will be a year uh this week.

And we come to a lot of these meetings and we hear the problem.

We leave these meetings, and the same problem exists three months later.

I looked at Ms.

Hershey because she sent me an email before they removed the encampment in my district last week.

Um I was aware of it, but didn't didn't understand the scope of it.

And when I asked the question, well, where'd they go?

Because I believe sometimes we got to move people out of a place where we have to have something to move them into.

We don't have that here.

So if it's more funding, let's talk about that.

But there has to be a strategic plan for the mayor's office, other than to bring to the council, Nicole, Kevin.

Um I know we had the house the hotel, and this is my question.

There was a hotel that the city owns that was given to an organization that did nothing with it.

Can anyone give me any updates on what we're doing in that?

Because I also believe I don't want to become a noasis where everybody's like Chattanooga does so well with homelessness that we become the hub for the whole entire country because we don't have the capacity for that.

Um so I just want to say that I know that may irk some people, but I think we need to take care of home first and make sure that we have the resources for the people who are suffering from substance misuse.

I think we do need to fund churches.

You know, we don't do enough of that.

There aren't some churches to uh councilman Henderson's point that won't do it, but I think we can find some partners that we can do it.

So I like to know where we are, and that was my purpose in bringing Eric because they're doing they have the programming that's working.

Um, and it's just not youth, it's it the model can be used for adults.

We moved, we removed 33 people off of the site behind Harbor Freight last week, and not I don't think any of them were young people, there were adults who probably had different varying issues.

Where are they today?

I don't know, right?

So my question again is that what are we as an ING, what are we doing with the site um airport and is that we were you about to say something?

No, no, good.

What are we doing with airporting?

Is there a strategic plan or any funding recommendations to do something with that?

So the city still owns Airport and we are very close to being able to publicly talk about a productive use that is directly correlated to the conversation today.

I do not want to get ahead of that public announcement, but but absolutely you guys will have a role, the city will have a role.

Um, and it's gonna be a net benefit for the ecosystem and for the community to your point earlier regarding community engagement with respect to projects like this.

There has been and there is ongoing a lot of boots on the ground, community engagement to make sure that all of the concerns that previously posed the challenge with respect to converting that facility to a permanent supportive housing facility are addressed and mitigated on the front end.

So we are extremely close to being able to make an exciting announcement about that property that's gonna help the industry.

Can you?

I don't know, I don't know where you guys are in that process.

We're often on the back end of finding out information.

So can you get can maybe can you communicate with Eric and maybe have them a part of those conversations?

Because I'm sure whatever the whatever it is, I'm sure it's gonna come back to council because it'll have a price tag on it, I'm assuming.

So this particular model is largely privately funded for um the renovation work that needs to happen.

There's gonna be an operational component that the city and the county we are going to bring forward a proposal through which we would partner with the county on operations to help fund it, but it's not gonna be run by either the city or the county, it's gonna be run by a private organization, which we think is most appropriate.

Absolutely.

And then can I just rapid fire a couple things real quick?

So on um on churches, I think that yes, we all agree that churches have a role to play, but I also I don't want to lose sight of the fact that churches already are scooping, they're in the game, right?

And and we have a lot of opportunities, be it through the uh the faith network affordable housing efforts going on that the city is is putting together.

There are groups um out there who are they have a uh basically like an emergency tiny shelter model that is being piloted in different facilities, so that's happening absolutely.

Let's continue to enforce it.

But if you go through kind of all of the verticals that we've talked about today, there's a lot of good stuff that's happening.

There's a lot of good stuff that this council has funded in this in the current budget that you guys have already said yes.

Is that the rental assistance?

It's it's it's all the things, yeah, it's rental assistance, it's the work that the coalition is doing on enforcement.

So enforcement is a function of capacity.

So the the simple answer, if we want more enforcement, we need more police officers, which also this council through the amendment for the budget.

We we made tremendous strides towards getting the police department to it its appropriate level in terms of the number of sworn officers for a city our size with the challenges that we have.

But enforcing panhandling on kind of like the hierarchy of public safety, I think we can all admit is it's not going to supersede some of the other things that literally endanger people's lives, right?

And so everything is a function of capacity, and it's a function of funding, and all of that is contextualized in a limited budget, right?

And so the easy answer that I think McKenzie has demonstrated great restraint and not saying so far, at least I don't think you said it, is that we need 30 million dollars if we if we want to do all this.

But guess what we don't have?

30 million dollars, right?

And so we have to figure out where what's working, right?

And so, like the whole thesis, the the mayor's office does have a strategic plan, and that strategic plan is what we're talking about today.

It's what we are actively funding through the programs and the partnerships that we fund today, and it's also it's proving effective.

And so our position is that what we want to do on a go forward is continue to fund and properly resource these efforts from a position of strength, meaning we're gonna continue to reinvest on the data, which is a key function of being able to continue to claw down HUD funding, which is critical to all of the endeavors that we've talked about.

We're gonna continue to fund um the various projects with respect to expanding capacity as opportunities that have the funding, the operational model, the community buy-in such that we know they will work.

We're gonna continue to pursue enforcement, we're gonna continue to work with all of the partners interdependent, interdepartmentally, and externally, but it's a function of funding, it's a function of calibration.

Um, and and there isn't an easy button on this issue.

It's so very complex, and so if if there was a city that could solve this with like the snap of a finger, I think it would be solved, and then we would just go copy with their gun.

But show me where that city is.

Well, we just showed you one of San Diego.

I don't we're not, I don't think we're gonna so we cannot solve poverty, murder, violence.

It is always gonna be with us.

But I think we have to put our best foot forward and putting a dent in it.

And cities are putting dents into this issue like San Diego.

And so if it's a funding thing, 30 million dollars, which I I don't I'm looking on the screen, I see where it says investing in housing stability.

Is that a living document of the mayor's strategic plan to address this, or is that just kind of the overarching initiative of how we are looking at the homelessness issues?

This presentation here, or no, just in general, you said there was a strategic plan from the mayor's office.

Yeah, so I think is this part of it, or there's so you have in your hand a leave behind, uh, or you should have in your hand, multiple leave behinds.

One of them is the coalition's annual report.

Um there, which which has policy recommendations in it, right?

Of here are the things where we have we know that we have critical capacity issues, and then you layer that with our annual budget proposal where we're gonna we're gonna come in and we're gonna bring forward the ones that we think are the most promising within the context of our budget.

And you're right, Eric's program is is great, but we also have very similar programs today in Chattanooga that that are working in the same way.

We want to continue to support those how we can.

We want to fund net new ones as those opportunities present themselves, which again, there's there's a very exciting one that is very close that that's imminent that is gonna have a FY27 budget impact and ask associated with it.

So did that answer your question towards the end?

I guess I want to yield to councilman Harvey.

That's okay.

Yeah, I don't know.

I think we had CPD here earlier, but um uh this may be a question for what's that?

Yeah, definitely.

Okay.

Uh I I guess I don't know if anybody here can answer this question, but where, like, for example, when when they cleared the homeless camp in your district, where where do the people like what do we do with those phone?

Where do they go?

So well, it depends.

So this is and we were gonna talk through it, we were got a little jammed for time.

Yeah, but it's a process, it depends on is it a city-owned property, is it a private property?

That that is often going to have big impact on kind of the timeline that we have to work with them.

But we go in with a human-first, compassionate approach where this, and this is why the by name list, by the way, is so important, because in in many cases, we already know, we, the royal wheat, we already know who the people in these encampments are because OSH, because the CR, because the community the uh organizations representing the room, they're out there with them on a day in and and and day out basis.

And so it just depends on who the individual is and what their unique circumstance is because there isn't a simple answer for any particular one.

So, whether you know, in in normal times, you would basically do a check down from Section 8 voucher options, public housing options, flex fund or um housing forward options, right?

In today's context, where's we we don't have section eight, we don't have public housing right now because everything's at capacity, they're waiting lists, and then with respect to the housing forward fund, if if the individual who is on the other end of that potential opportunity does not have employment or a line of sight to the opportunity to be employed, it becomes very difficult to use that money because in three months they're gonna get evicted, right?

And it's gonna be challenging.

And so it does depend, and often it does mean that we're just moving people along, which is not ideal, right?

Right, which is nobody wants that.

But that is the unfortunate reality in a lot of situations right now.

Can I say something about the yes, Ms.

Hershey?

Thank you.

So you have with this, okay.

My understanding when I reached out to you was that these people that live there wanted to get rid of the trash, they wanted to be part of the solution.

And so I reached out and said, hey, would the city figure out a way to put the dumpster so these people would get rid of the trash as a somebody who lives in Chattanooga?

Can bothers me because some of those the trash.

So if some place is trashy, I don't care.

You know, it's like, ugh, but if these people are our neighbors and brothers and sisters, and they want to clean up their stuff, why couldn't we have helped them?

Why did we have to do this?

And Joe.

Well, I think you'll you'll find the tents are just straight.

We're in downtown church, and we are fully invested in homelessness.

We love having locked there.

I went on Facebook, I got all my friends, we donated hundreds of uh hand warmers, blankets.

We're the biscuit brigade, we are with other churches, and we provide biscuits for them to take with them.

Someone understand.

Yeah.

Let me give some context to that to what she's talking about.

Um, Miss Hershey contacted me about the encampment behind Harbor Freight regarding cleanup.

Asking if the city would provide cleanup, correct.

And I contacted the public works administration and inquired, I think you were copied on some of those emails, I'm not sure, about cleanup and we couldn't put a dumpster, but he agreed to go and do some cleanup, but in that interim period, this is where it got confusing even for me.

Um I was I was forwarded an email being informed that there would be removal while I was out of the country.

I responded back thinking that it was a reference to the cleanup that was happening, not fully dissecting the email that it was actually encampment removal.

So I probably found out maybe a couple weeks after you sent me the email thinking that we were coordinating with public works to clean it up, only to learn through afforded email that it was actually encampment removal.

And so there's some better communication, I think that needs to happen there about just informing council people in our districts.

Yeah, we purchase hands for them, and they describe it.

And I haven't been given an update on what removals I've never, and so I I would love to know more about that, but I appreciate you all being because I I was like, if Harbor Freight had not, for what I understand, did not have issues, is what I think one of you all told me.

But then I later learned through the administration that we were had received multiple complaints.

Um and a lot of this was my first time being briefed on this as of last week because when I found out about removal, I was like, well, tell me more what's happening over there, because I know there was a group going to help clean up.

So I think there was some I was out of the country when that was sent to me when I got back again, just did not read it in depth to understand that it was actually removal.

So perhaps we can do better about maybe getting more information about what's happening in our districts would be appreciative.

Because there might be some groups that were already coordinating with.

Kelsey had to step out, but tomorrow at our city council meeting, he's bringing forth a resolution to address litter, and so uh stay tuned on that.

So that's it's a good thing.

We're we're we're talking about solutions to that.

Okay, see, do you want to say anything about this particular?

Yeah, so that this particular site, um, and and when I speak of Harbor Freight, it's kind of the Hooters, the Greenway area, the Walmart, Harbor Freight area.

Um, there had been um a ton of 311 complaints from citizens who who uh had made complaints of feeling unsafe walking on the greenway, didn't want to walk on the greenway anymore.

There they were sending uh pictures in of encampments along the greenway that they were complaining about at the trash.

Um just the calls to CPT for that area had increased over the last year substantially.

Um just the overall complaints for that area is kind of what targeted the cleanup.

Um Walmart makes weekly and daily complaints um about um the Greenway area behind um the Murphy there, right there, all on the greenway.

So it it it is um a combination of a lot of things, but the it a large constituent complaint.

And I represent those constituents, Casey, and I had no clue.

Okay, so that in itself is a problem because when she emailed me, I was like, great, it's a church group, maybe our church should join them to go assist.

Yeah.

So I was not aware, and so I dispatched this group from what I'm now hearing.

We in our removal efforts, we maybe have destroyed some of your donated materials to that group.

And so what you're saying, and I don't know if this is the case.

I know there's some upticks in your district, you know, having that information for the people that we are elected to represent would be helpful because they reach out to us.

And I have to this date, I am not aware that there were homeless issues over there or complaints, which I would like to see their report, by the way.

So I was just not aware because we had just did a zoning thing behind a Harbor Freight when we did some land swaps, and not one time did it come up that there were multiple complaints from CPD or uh from 311.

So one, I would like to see those complaints and the data from that, and if that is some data, because I know you guys are great at gathering data.

If there's some data that you can share even with Councilman Harvey, I know there's a or councilwoman burrs, because we both are in a corridor where we can visibly see the unhoused issues, but we we would like to be a part of solution, i.e., this working group, and so or who we're working with in the community, our constituents.

So if that if we could do better with you know information sharing, that'd be great.

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, I don't mean to cut you off, but uh I think there is another the IDB is scheduled to meet in this room here at 11.

So I just want us to be mindful trying to start to wind things down so that we can be mindful since we sort of encroached on a different uh room today.

Okay, yeah, and Casey, I know um you've been waiting patiently, and we kind of got off track with the presentation, which is good.

We've had good conversations.

Uh, were there any other topics you wanted to touch on?

No, I just uh want to make uh you know give an update.

We are doing some great things.

Um there's still a lot of gaps that that we have to do.

Uh one one of the the pilots that we're working on this year is with the Hamilton County School System, and I kind of wanted to get give a quick little update on it because it's very exciting.

Um so we um identified and partnered with Hamilton County schools to identify uh families that were experiencing homelessness through through the school system.

Um and we started this with a pilot program with uh with collaboration with Chattanooga 2.0 children's cabinet, Hamilton County Schools, Hamilton County, the city, and the coalition.

And um we had great plans to really go forward with this, and vouchers got frozen, so it kind of like stalled us a little bit, but to report some really great news.

We have housed 144 children that are currently enrolled in Hamilton County schools that were experiencing uh unsheltered homelessness this last seven months.

Um so that is some great work that we are doing behind it, and I did want to kind of point that out because we are uh working to do different things to try to address different issues, and that was one that um that kind of stuck out, and everybody's really passionate about kids.

So, like we dove into that and we're doing great, and we're gonna continue doing that over the next year with partnerships.

Um I just kind of wanted to highlight that just a little bit.

Can I Casey?

Did you have you got numbers out?

So I have been told that there's somewhere between 800 and a thousand kids in our Hampton County schools that are considered homeless, meaning they don't have their own permanent residence.

Is that correct?

McKinsey does have an updated number on that.

And the difference between some of the kids, Hamilton County, they use McKinney Vento definition, which is not the definition of literal homelessness HUD uses.

So it's a little bit that could be couch surfing, it could be housing insecurities, it could be living in a hotel hotel day-to-day.

Yeah.

Yeah, as of last week, it was right at 1,600 students.

And those are those are students that are literally on the verge of any moment being on the streets.

And I think as this committee continues, I to me it'd be great if we focus there to start cutting off that pipeline.

And that's what we wanted to try to do.

Coalition earlier between or correlation between you know the how you wound up being unhoused and it starting in the youth.

Yeah.

Which I so we've got 1,600 clients, it sounds like to work with.

Yep.

And and that's that was the thought behind it.

Like we really wanted to stop these families from moving into the literal homeless definition.

So if we can stop them before that happens, that's one less unsheltered person that we're gonna have on the street.

Right.

Yeah.

Matt's a question.

Who are the working group?

Yeah, so it's uh yeah, it's a council, city council working group.

So there are those of us on city council that have said we we'd like to dig into this issue.

There's other working groups as well, um, code enforcement.

Um can't think of the others, uh, but I know there are some others that are that are meeting as well.

But there are five city councilmen that are here today, are part of the working group to address homelessness.

Was there another presentation about closing encampments that we haven't seen?

Or there were some slides regarding the most in this presentation regarding the encampment, but I think we covered most of it.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, and and I know Kevin, you shared the slides with me, I can share them as well.

Sure.

Councilman Davis, I'd like to recommend uh that we do this monthly.

Okay.

To your consideration.

Sure, absolutely.

But if we do it monthly, I want it to be a workshop.

I am I'll be very frank.

I'm not very pleased because part of our working group is to talk about policy recommendations.

We're we are the legislative body, okay.

We get solutions.

We've if it's 30 million dollars, even trying to find how we can tap into the opioid abatement funds, which is what a lot of counties and cities are doing to address some of the behavioral health issues around homelessness.

I don't want to come to a meeting every month to have more presentations.

We know it's problems.

I can read, send me the send me the whatever you send me.

Please do not do that again.

I want to have conversations about point A, how do we raise 30 million dollars?

Point B, what is the policy recommendation we need to vote in?

What are the action items?

That is what a working group is.

Okay, so I I if we can do it monthly, but it it has to be some substance in what how we're attacking the solution.

I heard gaps, we've known about those gaps for a long time.

But what's the strategic plan to fill those gaps?

What I'm hearing, there's some funding issues.

So now we have to go back as a council as we approach the budget, uh, as we await the announcement about the um shelter, you know, what do we do?

You know what I mean?

So I just want to have conversation about what we're doing because I will not be here if we're gonna continue to talk about the problems.

Well, to be clear, councilman.

I think we've been talking about for all time what the city is doing, what our partners are doing, and and in order to know how to move forward, we have to know what all that we have.

I agree, but I we when we had when we scheduled this meeting, I had these presentations.

I've had them for a year.

And so what I'm saying is is that if we're and I not hearing I respect that, but I'm saying if we are to go to his recommendation for another meeting, I will only be there if there's a living document that says this is what we are doing.

And not saying that this meeting was a bust because this was our initial inaugural meeting, right?

If we and it's fine.

We we have these meetings also in council, you know, we have community development, we could have done the presentation at the podium on Tuesday.

But what I'm saying is is that as a call to action, because there are people here that I really think want to be a part of the solution, and they were you know, they responded to a ministry need and showed up, but there was some miscommunication.

And so I want us to figure out what the working group is actually working on.

Like, you know, I've heard some policy recommendations, I've heard some funding recommendations, I've heard some ministry opportunities.

Can we put that into a living document?

Uh maybe the work group involves more community people.

I don't know what it is, but I I hope there's more structure as to far as far as what we are doing.

And that's, you know, whatever that is, I'm not sure, but if we do it next month, it would be nice to kind of have a more in-depth framework around solutions.

Sure.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate all of you all being here and all of you all as well.

Um I do want to be mindful of our other city group who has to start a meeting in here at uh at 11.

Um, I think for today we will um we'll adjourn.

Um, but I'm happy to stick around.

If there are those in the audience that that have questions for council in particular, I'm I'm free until 1:30 today.

Um so I can stick around and happy to answer questions.

I I don't want to speak for the administration, but um thank you all again for being email us if you have rec if you have things you want us to know about, you can go to the city website and all our emails are on there.

And thank you, Eric Lovett, for joining us as early as 3 4 a.m.

this morning from San Diego.

If I can think of my time, that would be great.

I already need to be able to do that.

I just wanted to say something very quickly, and I because I think the Bible goes to where your treasures, there are your heart.