Good evening.

It is six o'clock, and we are gonna go ahead and begin our council workshop tonight.

Um, we will begin by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilman Thomas.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Councilman Thomas.

Um, Johnson, would you call the role, please?

Councilman Adams.

Here, Councilman Debart Laban.

Vice Mayor Fugut.

Here, Councilman Grant.

Here.

Councilman Helsley.

Councilman Honeycutt.

Councilman Lloyd.

Here.

Councilwoman Parker.

Councilman Thomas.

Eight members present, Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Council members, as you recall, we um at the beginning of the year did a survey for ourselves about topics that we were interested in learning more about.

Um, this was one of those topics.

And so we now have a workshop tonight on two very large topics that we will try our best to uh get through uh in a reasonable time.

I think we would all like that.

And I'm sure we'll there will be lingering questions, and we know you will be available to answer them after the meeting in the days to come if some of this presentation um elicits more questions.

So I don't know who wants to kick us off.

So um Deputy Mayor Ball, will you just sort of bring start us off with what we're gonna be learning tonight?

Absolutely.

We thank you all so much for the opportunity to present to you all about they are two very large topics.

And so I think what you're gonna find is there are a number of slides that we're not gonna dig in on, but we wanted to be sure that you had the information based on the some of the questions that we have gotten from you all, uh, some of the questions that we hear a lot and discussions that uh we have had on these topics, and so we wanted to be sure that we gave you the information.

We're we're gonna dig in on an awful lot of it.

Um probably would like to suggest that you maybe hold your questions, write them down, only because we've done a couple of run throughs with this, and we have found that we are answering people's questions, some of them at least, maybe not all of them, but a few of them at least uh as we go through the presentation.

So it might be uh a great uh thing.

No one's gonna leave.

Uh we'll all be here all the way until the end.

Um really pleased to have the team here, and Ben Bentley will be joining us as well.

His board meeting conflicts just a little bit with this time slot, so he will be uh joining us a little bit later.

But tonight we have Aaron Reed with the out Office of Housing Stability and Kevin DeBose with housing and neighborhood development, and then I'm Cheryl Ball, the chief policy officer with the city.

So there's a lot of layers and there's complicated, these are complicated topics.

Um we are gonna do our best to leave some time at the end for your questions.

Umeless numbers, how we got here, what homeless services are, and city investments.

We're also gonna talk about the state of Knoxville's housing, KC DC, the City of Knoxville Housing Fund, and attainable versus affordable housing.

Next slide.

We're gonna kick off with the joint office of housing stability, and I just wanted to provide a bit of brief context.

This is a collaborative effort between Knoxville Mayor India Kincanan and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs.

It is really exciting to have a key partner in this work of with the county, and part of the goal was to have somebody waking up every single day thinking about how do we advance our work in for our homeless community.

How do we coordinate across all of the myriad of providers for efficiency and to move things forward?

Erin Reed um is the executive director, and we're really uh pleased to have her on board.

Um we're really proud.

I'm really proud.

I've been around this for a little bit.

I'm very proud of the accomplishments that we have had with the Office of Housing Stability.

I'm not going to go through all of this, but just a couple of key things.

The warming centers, we had a homeless summit in 2024.

That was a great event.

And the COC seems like a bit of a challenging thing, but it is a big deal.

And for us to go through the governance changes and to have launched that COC board was multiple years in the making, and it was it, I'm I'm really proud of that.

And then, of course, the strategic plan, the input that went into it, as well as the launch of that plan, you do have that plan in front of you.

But it's it's a great opportunity for us to have a path forward for our community related to homelessness.

And with that, I'm going to introduce Aaron Reid, who is the executive director of the Office of Housing Stability.

Thank you so much.

Um for your support of homeless services.

And I'm including permanent supportive housing, uh, case management, street outreach, housing in general, which is how we solve homelessness.

Um, and finally, for your support of the budget of the Office of Housing Stability, um, because that the Office of Housing Stability has really been the foundation for a lot of the progress that we've been able to make over the past couple of years, and I'm really proud of that, and we could not have done that without the city's support, without city council support.

So thank you very much.

The Office of Housing Stability has a vision of a Knox community where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Um, and I'm gonna fly through these uh because I'm trying to make sure we have plenty of time for questions.

There are a few terms I wanted to make sure that we went over ahead of time.

Uh, one is the COC, the continuum of care.

That just means uh all the homeless services within a particular geographical area defined by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Our COC, of course, includes Knoxville and Knox County.

The point in time count, we call this the pit count.

Uh, this is our annual homeless census.

Um it is generally uh, well, it is always an undercount.

Um, partially because we can't find everyone who's unsheltered during the few days that we do the pit count every January.

That is uh that is just part of how the methodology works.

There's no way that we could count every single person.

So when you do see pit count numbers, understand it is definitely an undercount.

And lastly, functional zero.

You'll see this term in our strategic plan.

We're hoping to get to functional zero for veteran homelessness.

That's one of our marquee goals in this plan.

Uh, all that means, it doesn't mean actual zero.

Uh it means that more people are becoming housed than are becoming homeless in the particular group we're looking at.

So, in other words, if you're looking at the inflow to the system, people becoming homeless, and the outflow, people getting housed, you want that outflow to be greater than the inflow.

So these are the goals that you'll see in our strategic plan.

We arrived at these goals through an extensive community input process.

Um required to have uh an official strategic plan in order to receive HUD funding.

We launched this plan in September of last year.

We've already made some great progress.

Uh, you'll be seeing an annual report from us in the fall.

And this graph is the number of home of literally homeless people seeking homeless services on an average day.

We've seen a whole lot of growth.

Uh, in 2018, it was just under a thousand.

Uh, in 2025, it was over 1,800.

So the burden on the system has grown considerably in a fairly short amount of time.

Uh, communities across the U.S.

have seen similar increases over that time period.

Um, and so public consciousness about homelessness has been uh raised quite a bit over those several years.

Um I do have a couple of demographic breakdown slides.

Um I'm just gonna fly through this.

You'll have uh you have the slides and you'll have the presentation afterward as well electronically.

Um several of you have asked me how Knoxville stacks up to peer cities in terms of our homelessness.

So this graph uh compares pit count numbers uh per 10,000 population, so it is a rate.

Um, and as you can see, we're in the middle of the pack.

Um the other cities on this list uh were chosen by AI, if I'm being honest, um for their uh similarity in size to Knox County, for their similarity in terms of growth patterns, and some of them for their similarity in terms of economic trends, uh, you know, like also being university towns, for example.

Uh and any conversation about homelessness would be uh remiss without talking about the homeless management information system, um HMIS.

So this allows for data collection across service providers and more importantly, data sharing across homeless providers.

Um it is the basis for coordinated entry.

I know y'all have heard me talk about that a little bit already at past events.

Um coordinated entry provides a consistent set of tools across the community for providers to really assess how vulnerable a household is and what services they're most eligible for.

Um because all the providers can access the data in the system, um, the individual doesn't have to start over if they get a new case manager.

Their information is already in the system and they can continue from the point where they were instead of having to tell their story all over again.

Uh HMIS has an excellent dashboard.

Uh, if you Google Knox HMIS, it will take you right there.

Um this chart uh is a great example of the kind of data you'll find there.

Uh this is from the fourth quarter of 2025.

In that quarter, we had 290 people become homeless.

And this chart shows uh what led to their homelessness.

Obviously, you'll see cannot find affordable housing is by far the most common response to that question.

Um now I'd like to spend a little bit of time talking about different types of homeless services.

The next three slides are an overview of the full spectrum of service types that any community needs in order to effectively address homelessness.

Um, and so not all homeless serving organizations provide all service types.

Each provider has their own areas of specialty.

Um I just want to go over these.

So the first is case management.

This is uh very, very important.

So case managers help individuals get ready for housing.

They help them secure proper identification, they help them complete applications, and then they support that transition into housing.

Street outreach, these are teams who go out into the field, they engage with unhoused folks where they are.

Um they do meet immediate needs, they help with food, medical care, things like that.

But really, their big goal is to build trust toward engagement and other services, including case management, uh, to really get people on a path to housing.

Uh this is the second slide of homeless service types, rapid rehousing.

Uh so this has two components, short-term rental assistance and case management.

The goal really being to help households quickly exit homelessness into self-sufficiency.

Uh, then transitional housing.

So, this is a little different.

This is a temporary structured living environment.

Uh we talk a lot about wraparound services in this sector, uh, but really what that means is whatever services this person needs in order to move forward.

It could be employment supports, could be addiction treatment.

Um, and transitional housing, folks can stay up to two years.

The expectation at the end of those two years or less is that they graduate into self-sufficiency.

Uh permanent supportive housing.

So this is a longer-term intervention.

Uh, it's just housing with supports that help tenants stay housed long term.

This would be for folks who are gonna need a little bit of support on an ongoing basis.

Uh, and finally, homeless shelter, um, temporary safe, immediate shelter for people experiencing homelessness, day centers.

Um, these are supportive spaces available during the day.

They do meet basic needs, uh, but like street outreach, there they really are trying to connect homeless households to further services to get them on that path to housing.

Um, and low barrier shelter, I wanted to address it.

It is a subset of homeless shelter, but I wanted to address it specifically since it's been really a topic of conversation on council for quite a while.

And this would just be shelter with very minimal enter uh entry requirements, uh, for example, no sobriety requirement, uh, and you know, they may allow pets, so that type of thing.

So that type of thing.

Who are our local homeless service providers?

Uh I can tell you there's way more than would fit on a single slide.

Uh, what you see here is really a lot of the uh, well, it's a it's a a subset of our providers.

These are a lot of the largest providers that you'll see in the community.

And homeless neighbors, uh, I mean, just as we have a great diversity of homeless service providers, we have a great diversity of people who are experiencing homelessness.

Um there are so many reasons, probably as many reasons as there are people that push people into homelessness.

Uh and the goal of a really well-balanced system with all of those service types that I mentioned, is so that anyone in that position can see a path for themselves out of homelessness.

And so I'd love to talk a little bit more about coordinated entry because I feel uh this is one of the most important things to know about our system and about any system.

This is federally mandated that we have coordinated entry and that it uh perform the functions that I'm talking about.

Coordinated entry gives us a consistent tool to separate uh people into uh different levels of vulnerability so that we know what uh service is most likely to help them.

So low vulnerability, uh about 14 and a half percent of uh folks who come through our system score in this uh level.

We call them self-resolvers because they generally are uh working people.

Um they might be living in their car, they might have some challenges, but they have some resources, they have some support, they may need help with a deposit or an unexpected cost, but in general, they can resolve their homelessness mostly on their own, maybe with a little bit of help.

Skipped a slide.

There we go.

Um medium vulnerability.

This is about 43% of folks coming through our system.

Uh and these, you know, individuals are they're likely to become self-sufficient with proper support.

It may take some time, and they may need some additional interventions, uh, job training, addiction treatment, um, re-entry support.

In general, uh a good fit for them would probably be rapid rehousing, uh, so that rental assistance and case management that I talked about, or transitional housing, a medium-term solution, they could stay for up to two years, graduating into full self-sufficiency afterward.

And just to talk a little bit about outcomes that we see, um, we are, well, we should be really proud of the outcomes that we see from uh the homeless serving programs we have in our community.

Um, rapid rehousing, um HUD-funded rapid rehousing programs served 625 people last year.

Um, and uh 84% of those clients achieved permanent housing.

And that is a really, really good outcome.

Uh, with transitional housing, um, the HUD-funded programs under transitional housing are smaller.

They served about 52 people.

Well, not about exactly 52 people last year.

Um, and 81% of their clients achieved permanent housing.

Um, so I I want to take an opportunity to celebrate.

I mean, it's it's hard to find bright spots when you're talking about homelessness, but to me, this is one of the big bright spots is that we have uh service providers who are uh doing really good work, and they have funding, federal funding to do that work, as well as a patchwork of other funding sources, which they all need.

Um, and then uh to talk about high vulnerability folks.

This is about 43% of people coming through our system.

A hefty percentage of these folks are chronically homeless.

That means two things by federal definition.

One, they've been homeless for at least one year, two, they have one or more disabling conditions.

Um for people in this vulnerability band, likely they're gonna need case management and other services on an ongoing basis.

Um whenever I you know speak to the public about this, I always try to make it personal.

I think all of us have someone in our family, whether it's in our nuclear family or our extended family, who is just always gonna need a little help.

Um, you know, I can think of my person right now, and she's just always gonna need a little bit of help, and that's exactly what permanent supportive housing is meant to do.

It's a long-term solution with consistent support.

Um we and I'll be talking in just a minute about the permanent supportive housing developments in our community and how successful they are.

But first, um I'd love to talk about chronic homelessness.

Um, yeah, tiny numbers, sorry about that.

Um, but what I really want you to notice in this graph is that um between 2007 and 2025, you'll see peaks in, you know, uh local peaks on this graph.

Those um really correspond to national and local economic factors.

I mean, you can see in 2008 we had a major jump in chronic homelessness.

Um that really really corresponds with you know the 2008 downturn.

So you can kind of map out economic factors along this graph.

There are some places where you see valleys.

Many of those valleys correspond to years where we opened permanent supportive housing facilities.

Um they really do have uh an immediate impact on the number of chronically homeless folks in our community.

And so permanent supportive housing, um, again, I just want to thank the mayor and you all uh for supporting these projects.

And this slide really shows you uh the the extent to which you have supported them.

Um and this slide really should appear in Kevin's portion of the presentation because Kevin's team uh housing and neighborhood development are the ones who make this city investment happen in these projects, and in many cases, that is the deciding factor for whether the project happens at all.

Um I have it in in my portion of the presentation just because we're talking about permanent supportive housing, but just acknowledging I kind of took it from Kevin.

And we're very excited to see uh two more of these developments coming online soon.

The two in yellow will be opening soon.

Great example of permanent supportive housing, Casual Manor, uh lovely um courtyard apartment development.

48 permanent supportive housing units, the city invested one and a half million dollars to make this project happen.

Um, and so in terms of outcomes, we have excellent outcomes from permanent supportive housing in this community.

95% of clients who go into PSH remain stably housed in the long term, whether they stay in PSH or not, because some do leave, but they tend to leave and go to stable housing arrangements.

Um I would love to talk about shelter as well.

Um just an overview uh in a little more detail of the shelter um opportunities we have in our community.

Knox Area Rescue Ministries, 330 beds, our community's largest shelter.

They also do case management and have some connected initiatives like transitional housing.

Relaunch provided a seasonal shelter this past winter that was also a low-barrier shelter.

Salvation Army, another shelter provider, uh, they also do transitional housing and case management.

Uh, and then in terms of day centers, this is really an important uh component of our shelter strategy.

Care cuts provide shelter or provides day shelter three days a week.

They've been doing it for about the last 10 years.

I know you all are super aware of this one, given the discussion, um, uh just uh a few days ago.

And then volunteer ministry center uh provide day shelter and case management services through their family refuge.

So um CARM Relaunch and VMC all um uh they all have a white flag uh contingency for when weather becomes dangerous, and that starts at 32 degrees.

So this is really part of that tiered weather response that I have been talking about, where we have warming centers that traditionally have been at 25, but we also have expanded capacity at 32.

Uh so CARM uh expands their capacity, uh, they allow folks into the chapel and sometimes into other areas, depending on how much surge capacity is needed.

Uh re launch also expanded their shelter capacity when it got to 32 or below.

VMC, uh, they do the same thing.

They allow folks into more folks into their daytime shelter and into their family refuge.

Um it's also important.

This is something that I have uh learned uh over the three winters that we have been doing warming center work, and that is that really not everyone who's unhoused wants to be in a shelter.

Uh there are lots of reasons for that.

Shelters are crowded, they're chaotic, they are overwhelming for folks with certain types of um you know mental health issues.

The colder it gets, the longer it stays cold, the more people decide to seek shelter indoors and providing these opportunities at 32 at 25.

It really builds trust in the community.

And to that end, I do want to talk about warming centers.

I'm going to fly through some of these slides, but there's a lot of information there because I wanted to make sure that you had it to help address just the ongoing conversation that we're having about this.

When OHS was established in 2023, one of the first things we realized was that we needed more shelter space, especially in the winter.

So I worked with the National Weather Service to identify the the exact period of time when we felt that shelter was most needed.

And really, no surprise, that's December 1 to February 28th every winter.

And we're so lucky to have faith communities in the city that really wanted to step up and wanted to support their neighbors and keep them safe.

And so we OHS facilitates a coordinated effort for warming centers across the community.

We pay for uniformed security overnight, for example, for any site that uh wants it.

Uh and these next few slides uh really give you a comprehensive idea of how we've come together as a community to support warming centers.

Um we have lots of partners from transportation to support meetings to meals and training.

Um the community has really really responded to this initiative.

Uh, and I'm really, really grateful that we are able to offer this level of um I mean, honestly, love and care for our neighbors.

And so I want to toss the ball very briefly to Cheryl so that she can talk about um facility and people safety protocols.

This is a new protocol that was instituted uh before this past winter.

Cheryl.

Thanks, Erin.

Um, so a lot of the facilities that we're using for warming centers were built for other purposes.

A lot of them are churches, mostly that's what we've had so far.

Um churches weren't built for human inhabitation, they were built probably for a category, something like assembly or education, something like that.

Um so last, not this most recent past warming center season, but the 24-25 season, we recognize the need to address some potential concerns with safety for the facilities that would be potentially uh housing folks in the warming centers.

And so we started looking at what could we do for the 25-26 season.

And um, we put together a process.

Uh we had an inter-departmental disciplinary team of uh, I don't know, six or so different groups participating with us that all might have uh a potential role and what safety looks like.

Um as you know, if you build a home, there's different standards for a home with regards to egress, uh getting in and out of a house.

I don't know if you've ever uh potentially heard, oh yeah, you can't uh turn that room into a bedroom because it doesn't have a window, right?

Well, these these facilities are not built for that.

So they're not gonna have those windows in just the right place at just the right height.

But what we wanted to do was figure out how do we still make sure we're assuring the safety of both the in, well, really uh everyone, uh, those in the facility, uh, the facility itself, as well as you know, any first responders who might have to show up and and help with any situation that might happen.

So what we uh that all four, we did create a process and instituted that as soon as the warming center season ended last year, and put that into place, worked over the spring, summer, and fall with all four of the facilities that participated in this year's warming center season to have them go through this process.

Go ahead.

And uh the process really is initiated with the Office of Housing Stability and Aaron's team.

The um homeless coalition played a great role in helping to put together an information sheet based on the previous two years of warming centers and our past participants, the facilities that had run warming centers participated and putting together this information checklist.

And it's it's really like a guide of the kinds of things to be expecting and what would it look like if my church, for example, they're not all church, I mean, right now they're all churches, but it you know we say church, I'm trying to be more generic than church because I don't want to assume it will be a church, but um if if my church wanted to do it, and so once they are aware of like what this is maybe going to entail and they feel like they'd like to move forward, they are inspected by the fire department, um, the fire marshal to be a whatever their current use is.

So if they're a church, that's assembly, so they're inspected as a church.

Are you safe to be a church?

Because most of these churches have probably not had any kind of a fire inspection, not all of them, but most of them haven't had one in a really long time unless they've done some sort of a construction project that got a building permit.

Like if they did a construction project that got a building permit, of course, they would have had a more recent inspection.

But a lot of these facilities are older, and so they have that kind of a of a inspection from our fire department, and then what happens then is if there's anything that needs to be addressed, they they work on that and figure out how how can we address what those issues are, right?

Then it once that's sort of situated, assuming that they want to continue to move forward in the process.

Um, we have a fire suppression and life safety engineer that we work with that goes out and works with that facility on the particular portion of their facility that they think might be appropriate to be a warming center, and they talk with them about what they're going to uh where are the different facilities that are gonna need to be accessible for the purpose of sheltering people temporarily in an emergency situation overnight.

Um there might be additional fire safety things that would need to be addressed because people would be spending the night because that's very different than operating as an assembly facility during the day for a few hours or even extended hours just during the day.

Um they address what is the particular geographic area in that facility that's appropriate, uh, what's the maximum occupancy?

How many people, based on the size of that space and what the occupancy would be, how many people need to stay awake all night to assure that if there is a situation, everyone can be awoken if they are asleep and properly exited.

They provide a floor plan and fire exit routes to the facility so that they have the capacity to proactively be ready if a situation was to come up.

And so, like I said, we all four of the facilities went through this.

These facilities actually were really pleased to go through the process.

Um, they like knowing that their facilities are safe.

They are really pleased to know that that has happened.

We um I know that there's been some talk uh about a process that Louisville uh Kentucky has had, and um we actually started this not knowing anything about Louisville doing something kind of similar and found out as we got well into the process, like in the early fall, and it was really great to be able to compare notes with them because it's very similar process to what they have put in place.

I see that you councilwoman Adams has her line on.

Do you have a specific question about this?

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate you letting me ask a question.

How does this relate to a church having lock-ins?

Um if I that's something that was done in the church I grew up in for the youth, you know, just like a fun sort of spin the night thing.

How does that relate to a church doing that versus a church trying to provide a warming center?

Um, well, for one thing, um, there are it we're very different audiences in a lock-in.

I participated in those in my church as well.

Um, and typically uh those are chaperoned events, and there are individuals who are staying up all night.

Are there specific protocols that we have for that?

Not that I am aware of.

I'm not gonna claim to know um everything, but we don't that I am aware of have specific protocols related to a lock-in that I'm aware of.

Um this is a very different audience that we're talking about.

Um, and it is also a um uh typically a lock-in is one night.

And this is as we are fully aware.

How how many nights do we know?

How many nights we had 28 nights this uh winter that we had folks uh in shelter?

So it is a very different concept to to have a lock-in for one night versus, and it wasn't 28 consecutive nights, although we do seem to get our colder weather in bursts of multiple nights, and so um it's just a very different idea and concept to shelter for that period of time in a facility that's really not designed for it versus what you're referencing with a lock-in.

Thank you.

And the outcome that I am the most interested in with warming centers is that no one seeking shelter is turned away.

Uh, and that was the case this past winter.

It has been the case the all the three winters that we've done this.

Um that isn't to say we didn't still have people outdoors.

We did.

We absolutely did, as you know.

Um I'd also like to briefly touch on the day space.

Uh OHS has contracted with the nonprofit re launch uh in order to manage that space.

Uh we're working on some plans to reconfigure that space to create an improved environment uh and a more coordinated effort in that space to try to move people into a productive direction from there.

Uh okay, this one tiny print, big numbers.

The thing to know about this slide is that we have five federal grant programs uh bringing money uh to uh Knoxville, and along with the city's local dollar contributions, totals over 9.7 million dollars.

Um lots of resources going into this, but we're getting good outcomes.

We are seeing progress um with that.

Uh in fact, um our homeless service providers have helped 6,357 people find housing since 2020, and that is a great example of the village that it takes to do this work well.

Uh and I want to end with two stories.

Uh one is about uh Angel, who you see here.

Um that is her bike at the top left, uh beloved, beloved bike.

Um, she actually came to the warming center at Salvation Army the first year that we did it.

Uh, she was really struggling emotionally and physically.

Uh, but her main concern at that time was to get Narcan kits from us so that she could go out under the bridge and along Cooper and make sure that everybody else was okay.

Um I mean, for after meeting her that year, that was the thing that I wanted for her was to for her to feel cared for in the way that she cared for others.

Um at that point, she'd been homeless for about seven years.

Uh she worked very hard with a case manager over the course of many months.

She now lives in permanent supportive housing.

Uh, and she wants the community to know this about homelessness.

She says, instead of judging and assuming, interact and get to know people who are homeless.

Don't put them in a box.

People need to feel love and that they are cared for.

And one more, this is Katara as a toddler.

Um Katara's mother lost custody of him when he was a baby due to drug use.

And over the next 18 years, he moved between foster care, DCS offices, homeless shelters, mental health hospitals, and his biological parents separate homes.

He experienced abuse, neglect, violence, and homelessness.

He experienced heartbreak, uh, such as missing his father's funeral because he was in uh a residential mental health facility and could not leave.

Um, such as leaving the only school that ever felt like home when he was 17 because his mother lost custody again.

And through it all, he has committed to taking care of himself when no one else could or would.

He successfully graduated high school, and when he came back home to Knoxville at the age of 19, he obtained a case manager.

He went through the rapid rehousing process with one of our local providers and found an income-based apartment where he lives now.

He wants to train as a chef and is looking forward to some stability.

He's actually here with us tonight.

He's right behind me.

Hello, everyone.

Thank y'all for having me here today, by the way.

It's an honor to really experience this and be able to make it aware of that homelessness.

Yeah, I want to I want to I want to hear.

Thank you.

Um I just want to say thank y'all so much for having me and to be able to come out here with Ms.

Aaron and speak on the fact of homelessness because it is indeed a real um you know conversations to be talked about.

It's nothing to be played about, and it is something that a lot of youth that do age out of foster care experience.

Um I am one of those youth, so I just want to say thank you all so much.

Um and that is the end of my portion.

Um, and so everything that I've been talking about is really um is for folks who have hit in some ways the end of their rope.

They have lost their home, one of the most central uh you know aspects of our lives.

Um and so I'm really talking about emergency um help and ways to help people get back on their feet.

But I want to turn it over to Kevin DeBoes, who's gonna talk about how we actually solve this problem in the big picture, which is housing.

Uh Mr.

DeBose, before you start, I just want to take a quick look around.

Did anybody have any questions before you forget them specifically about Ms.

Reed's presentation before we move into the next section?

Um I do, but I wrote them all down.

So all right, wait until the end.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I was just wasn't sure we all had word that organized.

Thank you.

Thank you, Aaron.

It is uh pleasure to see how fast OHS has become operational and effective.

Uh counsel, I'm Kevin DuBose, Housing and Neighborhood Development.

Have a couple of team members uh here with me in the audience.

And um from H and D, I for the sake of time, I'll just ask him to wave.

Uh but we're focused on um keeping people housed, building more housing, and uh transforming blighted properties.

And uh grateful to be with you today.

Knoxville's housing crisis has driven us to take decisive progressive action that guarantees that our city remains attainable uh for all, regardless of income.

The crisis is a national issue originating from the 2008 economic um downturn, which was caused by an aggressive subprime lending market practices.

Um as a result, it led to unprecedented uh mortgage uh defaults and foreclosures.

Um this situation constrained the commercial lending market, and for many years, a decade uh resulted in underbuilding.

Despite being in a period of underbuilding, this region um experienced lots of growth, including within the city limits.

Nearly 20,000 um individuals moved to uh Knoxville between 2010 and 2024.

I should say that is our net growth.

Um this was partly fueled by the success of University of Tennessee in expanding its uh student enrollment.

The previous 15 years, just to give you some perspective, um we only grew by 6,000.

I want to add too that between 1970 and 2010, we grew by a total of 4,000 people.

So 4,000 people in 40 years versus 20,000 in 14.

We really um our community really really changed.

The current um housing market, and I don't know how to put it any better, is characterized by unacceptably high rents, um leading to instability for countless individuals and families.

Uh here's a pie chart here.

You can see what our rental situation looks like today, and roughly only a third of our mix uh is below a thousand dollars per month, uh which is a big difference from years past.

And this highlights you know some of the need that we've been trying to address.

Two terms you'll hear us talk about, and I want you to know.

Uh, one is cost burden and other severe, severely cost burden.

These terms can also be substituted as rent burden or severely rent burden.

And what they mean is uh HUD makes the definition.

If an individual or family spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs, their count cost burden.

If they're spending more than 50 percent, they're severely cost burdened.

From this chart here, you can uh see our situation a striking 79 percent of the households earning less than 50,000 are cost burden.

The graphic also shows that only when individuals begin to earn more than 50,000 do the majority escape that cost burden category.

Um the sharp rises in rents are a big contributor to this.

Cost burden is in not just limited to renters.

Um one-third of homeowners with a with a mortgage are cost burdened.

Uh among those who own their homes uh outright, uh that that figure falls down to 12 percent.

We often discuss AMI without taking the time to discuss its meaning.

Annual, I'm sorry, area median income is a HUD term and it represents the midpoint of income distribution in a specific location.

What does that mean for Knoxville?

So you can see by this charge, the midpoint income for a family of four in in our town is at a hundred and one thousand seven hundred.

As such, if if a family of four is earning less than 795, uh they're considered um low income and eligible for a lot of services.

If they are earning at that 497, their uh HUD calls that very low income for a family of four.

And you can see how that corresponds in others' family sizes.

Also, I want you to note and put a put a pin in it.

The 60 percent AMI line we include there because um our affordable housing fund ordinance, which was passed by council, um speaks to um how we deliver affordable housing, and that 60 percent number is huge, but we'll talk about it more later.

Before I go any further, I want to introduce my colleague Ben Bentley, who's gonna talk uh about KCDC and all of the great things that they do and the services they have.

Thanks, Kevin.

Uh good evening.

It's great to be with you all tonight.

Um very briefly, I like to give some context for KCDC as it relates to the city, just so everybody's on the same page.

We're one of the few entities that get to interact fully with all three levels of government, always exciting.

Uh we're 95 to 98 percent funded by the federal government, so typically through the HUD budget.

State of Tennessee, much like city or county entities were chartered under state law, so there's a section of code that for your bedtime reading you're feel free to enjoy section 1320.

Um, but it really does lay the major ground rules for how we operate, what authorities we have under the state of Tennessee, and then our board, KCDC's board is a seven-member board appointed by the City of Knoxville mayor.

We do a number of things, but I'm gonna focus on the on the housing pieces uh for this evening.

In May, I think there is a workshop that will be more focused on redevelopment and corridor development.

So we'll touch on some of the public incentives during that session.

So tonight I'm gonna limit it to the housing pieces.

So major reinvestments in existing public housing sites, five points, First Creek at Austin, Transforming Western, and then all of the other properties that we own.

We've had a priority over the last eight to ten years to try to reinvest those to make sure they're prepared for another 20, 40, 60 year run because when we own publicly the housing that people live in, it's going to be perpetually affordable.

It's a little bit different from privately owned affordable housing that doesn't have some of those same restrictions.

Two major housing programs that we operate, and a good way to think about these.

Both of these in total, you can see the numbers there, about 4300 and 3600 units.

So that is about 8,000 subsidized units, meaning that the individuals that live in those units pay 30% of their income toward the rent there.

I think that's an important aspect of our housing ecosystem and very meaningful.

There are another number of units, and I would estimate those at about 4,000 that are subsidized units that are privately owned in the market.

So it could be folks like we, I mean, we're partners, and you all, the City of Knoxville partners with some of these, LHP, Elmington Capital.

There are some other groups, Dominion that do that kind of work as well.

Highlighting the voucher program.

So this is for the most part, we provide a voucher to a family.

They go find housing on the private market.

So it could be a single family home, a duplex, or it could be a unit within a larger housing complex.

Within that program, there are some subsets that I think are worth you all knowing about and highlighting.

So we have a home ownership program.

I actually was looking at LinkedIn before I came and saw that we had put out a new homeowner recently.

She uh, a young woman that had uh qualified and spent about a year working to get her credit right to make everything go, and she's taking out a mortgage under that Section 8 homeownership program to be able to buy our first home.

So pretty big deal.

Over 200 low-income families have bought homes through that program.

We'd like to do more of that, obviously.

There are some special purpose vouchers within that housing choice voucher program, meaning HUD defines a subset of that to serve specific populations.

So the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing VASH program is the program through which we house specifically formerly homeless vets.

So Liberty Place was done development in partnership with the city through that VASH program.

We have a it's called family unification program.

HUD always likes to use words that don't perfectly align with what the program does, but it's called the family unification program, and it is actually for youth aging out of foster care.

So Lumen Flats, the recent development that was opened, it's uh 18 units for uh working with DH DHS to place folks, and that housing is done through that program.

And then there's uh one or two other special purpose programs that focus on non-elderly individuals with disabilities and housing them.

The other piece is obviously the KCDC owned housing.

You can see about 3,600 apartments, over 23 communities.

Um a good way to think about that.

It's not precise, but in big numbers, there's four elderly or high rises that serve predominantly elderly and disabled.

Love, cagle, isabella, and Northgate.

I'm glad I got those.

I started and I was like, oh no.

It's about a thousand uh homes for those populations and those four sites, and then the balance of the sites with the exception of of Eastport is are for families, so anyone could live there applying for those.

Um I think that's that's pretty much what I wanted to cover in that slide.

Am I am I going or am I throwing it?

I'm going.

Wow, this is fun.

See, I thought I only had two slides, and I get to talk more.

So I do think it's important.

Project-based vouchers are a subset of the housing choice voucher program.

In 2017, and as a couple of these charts have alluded to, our market got really tight, and KCDC would issue, and we still have challenges with this.

I'm not painting a rosy picture, but at that time we would issue a voucher, and about four out of the ten vouchers that got issued actually leased up.

Now we used all of the funds that HUD gave us.

That's not saying we didn't fully utilize that program, but we had to issue many, many more vouchers, and there were many families that didn't find housing because of the availability.

The beauty of trying, so project-based vouchers are we have the ability under HUD rules to for a quarter of those roughly 4,000 units, attach those to a physical building.

And it does two things.

The first thing that's really important, it provides housing over the long term.

So we enter a 20-year contract with the property owner, and those units are available to families with a voucher for that whole 20-year period, hopefully longer.

The good news also is that we tend to do that with new development.

So we want to create more affordable housing and improve the quality.

Those vouchers help the groups that do affordable housing that are coming to the city requesting affordable rental development funds through Kevin's program.

They allow them to underwrite the financial institutions, the lenders to underwrite those deals better.

They increase the proceeds, the debt that the developer can achieve, thereby making their projects more financially viable.

So it's really a it's a two-fold play, increase supply for our families and be able to increase the number of units available just broadly in our market.

Next slide.

So we have done a great job, and it's a hard, it's a hard story to tell, even as I'm thinking about how I'm gonna talk about this slide, in using local resources to maximize the resources from the state and the federal government.

One good example, so there's a program in THDA that is the primary funder of new affordable housing and the primary funder of rehabilitation of existing, so preservation of affordable housing in not just our community but across the country.

It's called, you know, it can be called 4% low-income housing tax credit program.

Sometimes it's called the bond program.

THDA last year had a little bit over $800 million available for the state of Tennessee through two different funding rounds in Knox County, and they do it by county.

So I am talking about the whole county here.

We brought in 222 million of that a little bit over 800.

To compare us, uh we were second only to Davidson County, which is drastically different, obviously in growth and in total population.

So that's in real numbers, but also just a comparison between Knox and Hamilton, because I think that's sometimes useful.

You can see 7% of the population of the state in Knox County, and we got 26% of that total bond allocation.

I think the most important number is the 1,277 new affordable homes for families that will be coming to our community in the next two years.

The reason we're so competitive, and I know that folks in our development community would echo this, is we do provide those soft funds through housing and neighborhood development in a flexible way that most communities do not.

We provide project-based vouchers through KCDC that housing authorities and other parts of the state for I have no idea why, but reasons that they can tell you have chosen not to make available, and we do low-income housing tax credit pilots, so tax abatement for these properties.

That package of financial resources supports in the creation of it it supports in our competitive applications for these types of new affordable units, and it really just drives people affordable housing developers to want to work in Knox County.

So I just wanted to highlight that.

Um I hope that made sense.

Councilwoman Parker, your lights on.

Do you have a question now?

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify, and I think you did, but just that the bonds you're talking about are those LITE tech credits we've heard of before.

So there are yes, that's absolutely right.

There are two different types of LITEC.

One is a uh to get not nuanced, too nuanced.

One is a nine percent tax credit, it typically funds about 70 percent of a development of budget.

Typically, a county because it's the competition for that is based on a weird sort of county needs score.

You typically would have one or maybe two, nine percent tax credit applications funded in a county.

So it's the the ability to drive a lot more of those to Knoxville with our resources is not really present.

But the bond program, which is much larger, and it's the four percent tax credit program.

You're right about that.

It has the ability through various levers that we can pull to really generate a lot more creation of affordable housing here.

Does that answer your question?

Yes.

Cool.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Yes, so so first cricket Austin is obviously a I I remember anecdotally, I'm taking longer than I meant to, but in 2016, when I was applying for this job, and I drove into Austin Homes, and um, I mean, I had worked many years in the middle of public housing sites, but like it it struck me immediately that it had roads that had just been cut off, I guess, when part of the site was demoed and never rebuilt.

There was no landscaping, there were no the public infrastructure felt unfinished, it was unfinished.

There was not connectivity, even though the site was right in the middle of all kinds of things.

And so we went through a long process, obviously, with residents at the center of that.

No process is perfect, no outcome is perfect, but uh to try to create uh you know, replacement of the at the time 129 subsidized units that were at the site, uh addition of new affordable units, and then workforce housing units, so socioeconomic diversity at the neighborhood level.

The city committed 14 million over a number of years to that effort, which really made if you've driven through the site, uh, you know, the connections, the public space is the playground, and we've got a little work to do still on some connections, but it leveraged about a hundred and fifty million dollar investment, about four hundred and forty units beyond the original hundred and twenty-nine subsidized units.

We were through a HUD grant able to add 50 permanent supportive housing units for elderly in our final phase that just opened over there.

So there was actually the addition of some subsidized units and that creation of intergenerational housing.

That type of program, that type of redevelopment where we are creating, hopefully, over the long-term community, rather than I mean, housing is great, and it's a good start, but if we can do more and create places where people, families can thrive for many years, that's the goal.

And I think that's uh without the city's investment in these, that would not be possible.

So thank you.

Uh the similar vein with Transforming Western, obviously the city's commitment of 26 and a half million, leveraged uh 40 million dollar HUD choice neighborhoods grant, so the federal government's involvement.

That choice neighborhoods grant uh actually unlocked for us a set aside in the 9% low-income housing tax credit program where every year, as long as we are under that choice award, we automatically get 17 million dollars in tax credits for each phase of this.

So it really um your commitment to the infrastructure piece has allowed us to raise close to 200 million dollars for that redevelopment.

Most importantly, that's gonna end up on the whole being about 735 units.

The there's 440 that are you know in some form of subsidized and the balance of those being affordable and workforce.

So a really big deal over there once again.

We couldn't create park spaces, we couldn't build community buildings that are gonna house partners like Real Good Kitchen, Boys and Girls Club expansions without the city's support.

It and I know that those are hard uh things to maybe they're not, maybe they're easy, but I think they're hard decisions because there are so many interventions that are needed that affect people in the immediate moment, and those are critical.

But if we're not also looking at investments like this that affect hopefully people that live in a place for five, ten, fifteen years.

I think we can do both of those things, but it's a little bit of a different type of investment, but over time it makes a huge difference.

Thank you, Ben.

Our our partnership with KCDC is uh exceptional, and we are the envy of cities across the state.

Um you've heard some of the tools KCDC is using and the investments we're partnering with them on.

I want to talk more about some of the other resources we have.

Ben mentioned the soft money that we have.

Um I wouldn't call it a soft, but uh because I want it to be robust.

But our affordable housing fund um is special in in what it has accomplished.

Um the affordable housing fund, of course, is a uh 10-year commitment, five million dollar a year, fifty million dollars.

Believe it or not, we've already invested 46 million.

Way ahead ahead of schedule and grateful for the to the mayor and council, previous councils for their commitments and their um you know energy around this issue.

Um this represents uh incredible progress in a short amount of time.

Uh a little bit more about how we've spent the funds or committed the funds.

Uh 12 and a half million has gone to gap financing on private projects where we're just providing enough to get it over the hump.

You know, we're not doing the majority of it.

We're we're we're making these projects viable.

Another $8.5 million has gone to fuel six.

I want to say that again, six uh permanent supportive housing developments, and again, credible in short amount of time for veterans, for seniors, for uh youth.

Um, and uh we've um contributed over 22 million thus far.

That number is growing each each year uh to the support of uh First Creek of Austin at Austin and Transforming Western.

And we've uh dedicated a total of three million dollars uh for homeownership uh initiatives and infield development in our neighborhoods.

Uh developing affordable housing is very, very challenging.

Uh but we have developed some expertise here and we're really good at it.

Um as Ben mentioned, um THDA has recently awarded give given City of Knoxville an award, and they have told us you are punching way above your weight, and it's be how we're thinking about affordable housing and moving projects ahead.

Um I want to point out that we don't build housing.

Uh and instead of you know doing it ourselves, we we sponsor projects uh through that last dollar gap financing.

We also don't pay anyone's rent outside of what you know Aaron mentioned with rap rapid rehousing uh which is designed for a different purpose.

Uh what we're doing is is is on the development deal end.

We're trying to make projects go.

Do you remember that term AMI we talked about a few slides ago?

Um in structuring deals, this is how it works.

Um our affordable housing ordinance requires that 65 percent of all of the funds from the affordable housing fund benefit persons below 60 percent of the AMI.

The balance or 35 percent can only be you know for the benefit of those between 60 and 80 percent.

I want to point out that we have not spent any cash, any cash for uh projects that benefit anyone above 80 percent of the median income.

Our affordable housing fund and our incentives are strictly for those who are our greatest need.

Uh softer incentives, of course, have driven other um um programs, but in terms of real dollars, you know, we we invest in in affordable housing projects.

Um a little bit more about how and why gap financing is needed.

Take a look at this slide, and and it's really simple if you think about it, but typically with a market rate development, there is enough rent income to cover you know the debt needed uh for a project, and so the uh investor would have very little uh equity to put in.

But when you turn to affordable housing development, you know, there the rents are not the same.

And below market rents, um, you know, persons only paying a portion of their income is going to result in um you know lesser amount.

And so there is a funding gap that undoubtedly arises, and how do we address that funding gap as Ben mentioned with uh low-income housing tax credits, with assigning project-based vouchers uh through our affordable housing fund through other uh federal programs and things that we have at our, you know, but we worked really hard to uh close the deal.

Um a little bit more about low-income housing tax credits.

It is a significant resource.

Um developers can sell these um credits out on the open market for cash, which helps them raise the equity and to finance their projects.

This uh method has resulted in billions of dollars uh coming into the housing sector, affordable housing sector that we would not normally have.

We are very proud of this outcome.

For every dollar that we invest of local money, we're attracting 15 dollars of other resources, other investment.

And the other outcome that I'm proud of is we've been very, very for our city, our size, super productive.

3,400 homes either brand new or preserved.

And again, it is due to how we've we're thinking about it.

And as Ralph Perry says, that our ability to punch above our weight and attract those other resources.

Look at the housing numbers and the numbers of development.

But there's no sector where there's less than 350.

So we usually three three 350 to 550 units have been the result in again a short period of time since 2019 with our programs.

And we don't want to concentrate affordable housing in places where there's too much of it.

So we are very conscious of making these investments across the city and across council districts as well.

You've heard these two terms, affordable housing and attainable housing.

What do they mean?

Well, affordable housing is actually defined for us by the affordant affordable housing fund ordinance.

So that's a specific group that and again passed by ordinance.

That's what we're going by.

Attainable housing is a broader deal.

It depends on upsubsidized market.

But what we've tried to do is to do affordable housing in a manner that helps the attainable housing need as well.

And I'll talk about that more here in a second.

Again, um you saw the population growth, which needed um lots of housing units, and you can see that the inventory is increasing.

We're uh witnessing a significant rise in housing construction.

Um reaching the levels necessary for uh a well-balanced market.

We're not there yet, but we are on our way.

Um here is the report card, so to speak.

Our attainable housing, attainable resilient Knoxville housing strategy is two years old.

And there are two things that we wanted to do.

One is is drive new new housing units through a variety of of ways.

And we said we needed 1,200 to 1,600 per year or 6,000 uh to 8,000 units by 2029.

I want to say that we're on pace.

Um so far, um, 3100, 42 units have have been produced.

And um we also said that we needed 400 units of affordable housing um per year, which is aggressive, very aggressive.

And so far, uh we have our efforts have resulted in nearly 1,200 uh units.

So very proud of that.

A variety of partners you see the logos here of uh folks we're working with and one group on here who we hope to work with.

Um I want to mention that for the most part all of these are local.

Um, you know, and there's a few Nashville folks, but you know, for the most part, over overwhelming our partners are local.

I too want to end on a story.

Uh this is Miss W, and Miss W had the pleasure of uh being at her ribbon cutting for her new home.

Uh she's one of the 200 that Ben described.

Um she recently purchased her home, converted a a a voucher to and our the city work with with her in neighborhood housing, which is a trusted partner for affordable housing, and she has graduated the full continuum for many years.

She uh was a renter, and most recently lived in Southside Flats in our in a city sponsored unit.

And so she left this city sponsored unit and was able to directly buy her home.

And uh to see the pride and the the self-determination that that she had that day made me very, very proud.

With that, I'm gonna turn it back to Cheryl.

Thanks for having us.

We um thanks for having us where we're happy to entertain questions.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, Councilman Thomas, I've got to start looking at this rather than to my left and my right.

Um Director Dubeau, um, on page 33, you talked about how for every dollar invested, there's 15 that coming back.

Can you kind of give us an idea of how that money invested comes back to us at that rate?

Yeah, so you know, we're only paying a portion.

I believe that this is the smartest use of our money.

You know, people get on to me all the time about the how uh expensive affordable housing is, and it is expensive, you know, three, four hundred thousand dollars a unit, okay.

But locally, you know, we average about sixteen thousand a unit that we're paying in gap financing.

And so the rest is leverage, you know.

You cannot produce many housing units for sixteen thousand.

So I'm giving you an example in your your area, Grosvenor.

Grosvenor, we only had, you know, Beth, what is it, about a million dollars in to that project, and it was a sixty million dollar project.

But that's all they needed to get across the finish line.

And uh, you know, so I thought that that was a great unit, uh, great use of the city's money to have a long-term uh impact on affordable housing.

Okay, yeah, thanks for mentioning that project because that one was uh we all think of it as a big success.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Parker.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um I'll start with Mr.

DeBose.

Um the the area of investment um that I'm trying to get a better understanding of is in attainable housing.

Yes.

And uh in the slide, um you talked about the the working middle class and uh that this population is is not necessarily gonna qualify for a voucher.

Can you give us a sense of um the income range for this category?

Because I think um when a lot of people here working middle class and the folks who are you know kind of that missing middle and the folks who are falling through.

Uh they're probably thinking of a uh of a lower income than maybe what what that category actually applies to.

You're exactly right, people are shocked.

Um so if you were recall back to that slide uh where we had the uh the no the the area of median income.

A family of four, you know, uh was right at 1015.

Um and we said what represented that 80 percent of the area median was 79 uh 795.

Um so that attainable group is that 80 percent to about 100 percent, and sometimes you know, above that.

So 79, if you're earning 79,000 um family of four to upwards of a hundred thousand, what that means is you could have two earners in your home making fifty thousand and still be cost burdened, still be paying too much for rent.

And so we're trying to impact um that market, and it's a hard market to impact because as you mentioned, our tools are are directed at low-income um individuals and families.

However, what we've decided to do while still focusing on displacement and increasing the number of uh places that have income assisted who take income-based you know uh housing.

We also because of the sheer volume have the can, and it's gonna take more time, you know.

We said by 2029, if we continue to do these things, but we beginning in quarter two last year, we're starting to see some rents decline, particularly in the city.

And um, you know, as I I do have one good example, so one good story about that.

Um there's uh a house that I see every day leaving work, um, and uh it always catches my eyes that that um golden black house on Clark Street and uh and my good friend uh councilman Danny Mayfield and Melissa Mayfield look uh lived in that house and I've spent some time there.

So I see it every day.

The other day I I looked at Zillow, and um an invis investor purchased that property in um the height of the pandemic, and for the past three years it was rented for $2,300 a month.

In 2025, it came open, and um they tried to rent it at 2300.

Two months later it went down to to um below 2,000, make a long story short, set vacant for almost a year, and it was recently rented at 1750.

You know, and so I'm I've verified with some local realtors and including realtors, including um council councilman, former councilman George Wallace, that have said, hey, yes, in the city that this is happening.

This is a phenomenon that's happening.

And so we're hopeful that the continued production will will have that effect even greater moving forward.

So would you say that the overall strategy of cre increasing housing stock is the main strategy the city is using to impact those numbers, or is there something else?

Well, let me be careful because I did read read the article you posted about the New York and I actually and I actually uh agree with it.

And so the uh some cities have just focused on building housing and hope that the what the term is called filtering would result in naturally occurring affordable housing.

And in some cities, what they've done is they studied and saw that the the cost burden numbers increased after that.

But we're not we're doing it a little differently.

What we focused on every like I said, I want to reinforce this, all of our cash has gone for affordable housing.

So we've increased the number of affordable housing, and so you know, the studies there is that for whatever 100 units of affordable housing that has the uh impact of uh reducing displacement, but also it has a better result when it comes to filtering.

So I agree you just can't build housing.

You have to build housing for those in greatest need, and it will have uh have an impact.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Yes.

Uh I'm sorry, Kevin, I don't want to toot your horn too hard, but y'all have also invested so in the tax credit program recently, there was a a loosening, it used to just serve 60 percent area median income, but they adopted something called income averaging, which allowed in the same in the context of a hundred unit development, you could do if you did 30 of the units at 30 percent AMI, then you could take 30 of them up to 80, creating true socioeconomic diversity at the property level, serving more deeply affordable, but also that 80 percent workforce that's listed in your AMI number here.

You all have been super diligent in funding properties that do that.

I know that um Giffen and South Knoxville is an income averaging deal.

I mispronounced it, Ryela on fifth is what they're calling it right by VMC, that will be an income averaging deal.

Many of y'all's recent deals that you funded, I know that was part of the thought process, and it's really great.

Yeah.

And and I will say, I mentioned that you know, we're starting to see the the the declines in rent, but I need to qualify that rent's still way too high.

Oh, yeah.

And you know, 1750 for a three-bedroom, one-bath house is just not not it.

So we still have lots of work to do.

Thank thank you.

I have more questions, but I can pause.

Can I get um Councilman Grant?

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, my question is for I have a couple of questions for Aaron Reed.

Uh just regarding some of the some of the homeless numbers that I've been able to look into, um, just you know, even taking a look at the graph, um, here on page five of homeless seeking services on an average day.

And so just looking at these numbers going to 2018 to today, we've nearly doubled that number.

And so that has me a little confused.

Reason being is you know, when we talk about providing permanent housing, uh, I believe it was 6700 since 2020, I believe it was.

About 6300, yeah.

6300.

So if if we if we provided 63, people with permanent housing, how is it that our homeless numbers have nearly doubled in the last five years?

Are homeless people simply moving here?

What would what are you saying?

So what we're seeing is that more and more people um, there's a few phenomena happening.

One, more and more people are becoming homeless.

Um we definitely do have people who are homeless coming here from other communities that is happening.

Um, but the majority of people who are homeless here became homeless here.

Um the other phenomenon that we're seeing, the other reason the burden on the system is so high is that the duration of homelessness has increased by quite a bit.

We're now well over the five-year average in the duration of homelessness in this community, and people are just kind of hanging out on caseloads because it's hard to find housing for them to step into.

Okay, so that's I I think that's why I'm a little confused because like I said, it it says that we've provided 63 permanent units, 63 permanent units, right?

Well, so that number, that 6300 since 2020, that is the number of people who have been assisted in finding permanent housing.

We haven't provided them with a permanent housing unit for some of them we have, but for most of those individuals, they had a case manager who helped them find uh housing that was attainable and sustainable for them.

And so we didn't provide 6300 permanent housing units, we assisted people in most of them in finding housing.

That's what that number represents.

Okay.

Yeah, it's it's not permanent supportive housing.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's it's just housing.

Just housing.

On a permanent basis.

Okay.

Um, well, since we're talking about homeless, let me let me throw this in here.

Um, I know we talked about our warming centers.

Um, you know, we have some some time between and hopefully before the next winter.

I mean, it snowed what last week.

But um, you know, in terms of you know, cooling centers, has there been any conversation in terms of strategy and you know, how we're gonna be planning for this summer to make sure that we're keeping our unsheltered cool during those those heated months.

Um, and then also um I would have to mention that one of our locations that have been consistent in terms of providing shelter during the warmer months, we will no longer have and so just making sure that we're preparing um for that as well.

And so you know, have we started any conversation between yourself and your staff?

And so we tend to worry most about the cold.

Um you know data tell us that cold here, cold is much more dangerous than heat, so I have really focused our resources on worrying about uh cold weather.

Um with that said, uh I know that we have um there's at least one church that I can think of that is probably interested in being a cooling center.

Um we would certainly help with communications.

Um I don't have budget for security, but we would certainly help with communications um for any churches that wanted to open as cooling centers.

I'm also not as worried about cooling centers because there are places for people to go during the day.

Um day sen uh I talked about white flag conditions.

White flag conditions exist for heat as well.

So um when it gets above um, it's either 85 or 90, both CARM and VMC hang the white flag.

People can come in during the day.

Um, even folks who are not clients of those agencies can come in during the day to stay cool.

Buses are running.

Okay, thank you for that.

And I have one more when you talk about our warm incers uh relaunch specifically.

Um in terms of the process, I know it was the first time it was the first time operating in that building, um, but I did have an opportunity to talk to their leadership because they signed their lease on December 1st and they didn't get a certificate of occupancy until December 22nd.

So for 22 days, they were paying rent and and spending resources, and they weren't able to function.

And so just making sure that we were better prepared, I guess, going into the next winter season to make sure that we have all these pieces aligned, and so uh when will there be a time where we come back to the table in terms of you know making the changes, right?

We talked about the the 32 degree threshold.

When when are we planning on having that conversation amongst ourselves with those other volunteers and other you know organizations who are willing to come to the table?

Is there already a plan for that?

Uh not yet.

So we're still in the process of collating and analyzing everything that we learned this past winter season, uh, all the improvements we were able to make.

Um and so uh there's not a plan for that yet.

Uh but I mean the conversations are already happening.

I mean, we're in constant contact with relaunch.

I mean, there we contract with them to provide services, and so uh I mean, we're working really closely with organizations to get as many of these pieces in place as possible.

Well, thank you.

Um and I just want to say thank you.

I mean, I feel like you've done an amazing job uh since this you know position is being created, and so you know, personally, and you know, however I can be of better assistance, please don't hesitate.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Councilwoman um Adams.

Echo what Denzel said, like phenomenal job, and really thankful for you and all of your team.

My perception is that in the way that uh Kevin was able to provide a slide that showed a breakout geographically across the city of where housing units um exist that and that being a pretty even distribution.

My perception is that we don't have the same type of even distribution for our warming centers, cooling centers, or shelters.

Does a slide like Kevin's exist that just shows that um clearly?

And is if if you were asked to think about needs ahead, would that be in your top 10 of needs ahead?

Would it be in my top 10 of needs ahead to get a more uh a more uh sort of equitable geographic distribution for shelter resources, including warming centers?

Absolutely.

Um and a slide like that does not exist, but I could easily make one.

Uh, you know, we we do have a concentration of services along the North Broadway corridor.

Um with city council's help, we're in the process of decentralizing those services.

So the uh the care cuts conversation shows uh how difficult that potentially can be.

Um, but also that uh you know that we can make real progress.

Um that's definitely on my mind.

Um I mean, ideally, in the time that it would take to get a truly geographical, you know, distribution of resources.

I would hope that homelessness would have gone down enough that we would not need so many resources anymore.

So, you know, our our focus is twofold really.

I think that's a great point that the balancing there of trying to work at at both ends of things.

And I realize that many of the places that are offering these services are doing so voluntarily, so that too is another factor.

Um I know that as the the resolution that is part of this conversation is looking at what can we do to make things better.

So that's the where my question is coming from.

And um, if that's part of the top 10, I hope that we keep talking about that.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um Councilman Honeycutt.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh I second my uh fellow councilman's uh uh statements regarding both departments, the Office of Housing Stability and Miss Reed's work uh and the housing of uh the Office of Housing and Neighborhood Development and uh Mr.

DeBo's and Mr.

Bentley at KCDC's work, both departments uh we should be commended and and we really appreciate the work you're doing.

You will both, and this is a question actually is for both departments, really.

As experts in your field and doing the good work you're doing, what do you see as the greatest challenges uh relative to your work in our community and what can the city and city council do about it?

I'm gonna throw a softball to uh Ben.

I actually set in on a session where Ben was a a panelist.

And uh and he mentioned the challenge of you know with our rent softening that uh there is the potential um to have uh you know more challenging financing that but before I mess it up, I was just gonna throw you that software to talk about a little bit more.

Yeah, yeah, I mean it is uh it's an interesting question when you want affordability across the market.

Um we know construction costs have not come down.

It's actually it's it's if you look at an inflationary index, which I don't recommend.

Since COVID, most areas of materials have stabilized, but the major components of building housing have not.

They're still way up here.

So construction costs are still a bad factor.

Interest rates are doing what they're doing.

They're while historically low much higher than they were five, ten, fifteen years ago.

So those are two headwinds.

The one tailwind, which is not a good one, but it it was the reason we're able to create housing rents, even in the affordable space.

So I don't mean what the owner what the resident pays in our case, but in a subsidized program, what HUD would fund was going up because rents based on the American community survey were going up, and not just in Knoxville, all over the country.

So that was a tailwind that enabled us to be able to create more housing, get more money from a financing perspective to do affordable housing projects.

When the market softens, that one tailwind becomes uh less such, and you end up potentially making deals a little harder to pencil.

I think with the soft funds that we have here and the resources that we've all talked about in the last hour and a half, we're in better shape than most communities for sure.

But that is a is a big challenge.

Councilwoman Parker.

Sorry, I didn't I just wanted to sorry.

No, no, you're fine.

It was for both departments.

So I did want to give uh Ms.

Reed an opportunity to answer that regarding homelessness.

Uh thank you.

Uh so uh the biggest challenge that we face in terms of homelessness is uh lack of housing.

Um as I mentioned when when councilman grant was speaking, you know, we've got folks hanging out on caseloads.

We have case managers who can't effectively serve the number of people they otherwise would be able to because they've got people just waiting.

We've got people hanging out in transitional housing who can't find a place to step into even though they're ready.

Um and you know, kind of as a subset of that, another big challenge is having the right kind of housing.

Um, you know, the vast majority of folks who are currently in our system waiting for housing need a single efficiency apartment as cheap as possible, hopefully income-based.

Uh a lot of them are gonna need a place they can afford on a disability check.

Um so more of that type of deeply affordable housing, income-based housing is gonna be really important.

So do me just if so obviously the biggest need is housing, but then I just Mr.

Bentley, if I think I heard you right, basically said it's gonna be harder to finance housing, right?

Is what you're seeing.

And that's kind of the the potential challenge is is well we the need is growing here, the the challenge is becoming harder over here.

Is that accurate?

That is accurate.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

No, yeah.

Uh Councilwoman Parker.

Well, um those lines, um, Mr.

Bentley, I wanted to talk with you about uh vouchers and KCDC housing and waiting list and what those look like currently.

So the the quick high-level snapshot is that for those two major programs in the one slide, so KCDC owned housing and then the voucher program.

We have about five thousand unique applicants on the way each of those waiting lists at a given time.

The one thing to keep in mind on the number is definitely lower on the KCDC owned stuff because there are applicants that are on multiple waiting lists.

I mean, for instance, you could easily see a 65-year-old applying for Love Towers and Northgate, so having two applications in the system at the same time.

But the voucher program, you know, that 5,000 plus is those are individual unique applicants that are on the waiting list.

So the the demand is significant.

And so what does that mean currently?

Um if someone wants or needs a voucher um they're going to be put on the waiting list at this point.

Yes.

Do we know when that will change?

I mean, is it that we need 5,000 units before we can issue new vouchers?

So there are always people coming off of the voucher program and new vouchers being issued.

But yes, if a new person came on like today, if I applied for housing on the voucher program, and I'm not uh there's a couple of preferences.

So if I don't have one of those preferences in place, and I'm not one of the special populations that are in those special purpose vouchers that HUD highlights, it could easily be a year's process before you would get to the front of that waiting list.

And as I'm sure the next obvious thought is hopefully most people would have found housing by the time that they would rise to the top of that that voucher list, but that's not always true.

So okay, and for the um the section eight housing program, does a KCDC set like an annual goal for how many of its properties they want to move through that program?

Do you have an inventory right now of a certain number of properties in that in that program?

So how like how many separate individual landlords we have interacting with the no the um the section eight home home buying home ownership program so that is an amazing program because we could do um as many of those as people want to sign up and qualify.

The challenge, the challenge is uh within the realm of the 4300 unit voucher program, like there's not a HUD cap that says you can only do 100, 200, whatever.

The we have some great partners that do their HUD uh credit counseling, so they help people get credit scores.

The beauty of this program, no one has ever been foreclosed on.

So we've had no bad loans through this program, but these are folks that just like any of us that have taken out a mortgage, they are credit worthy.

They have they are taking the mortgage out in their names.

Uh these typically are regular 30-year mortgages.

We do have, I'm giving a little more detail to get to the point.

We do have really good relationships with Pinnacle Bank and First Horizon that have specific programs where they'll actually underwrite uh a piece of the voucher in order to derive what the tenant and their income can afford.

So it's a really good setup.

With that said, getting a credit worthy tenant that can be the borrower on that, that also there are some down payment programs that are that assist, but all of those things coming together, I don't want to say it at limits, but there are certain folks that may never be able to meet those standards, and there's others that that can.

So we would love to do many of those.

But so just to clarify, because I've talked to a few developers who are you know creating new projects and have told me that the intendant occupant is a section eight vouch, you know, home ownership voucher holder, uh, which I think is super cool.

But then also KC DC also has in-fill option up properties for this program, right?

No, we we haven't developed any home ownership ourselves.

The infill that we've done have been rental, and we've done some of those in five points, mechanicsville, other areas.

But the home ownership we've relied largely on the community housing development organizations that housing and neighborhood development works with to do that.

And then I mean, and there are some smaller private developers that do single family homes as well.

Okay.

And quickly on the warming centers, because I know it's getting late.

When describing the process, it was uh described as initiated by a phone call.

And I just wanted to understand more about that.

Is that you making phone calls to like prior warming centers or uh well both ways.

So if a church is interested um in being a warming center, their first stop would be OHS.

They would give us a call, send us an email and you know other partners know to drive interested churches to us as a first step.

But we also are actively recruiting the homeless coalition is actively recruiting.

I've been in conversation with three additional churches who might be interested um in doing it.

They're trying to evaluate their various capacities but um you know so so phone calls go in both ways happening uh all the time now is prime recruitment season for warming center facilities.

And one thing that I was um hoping might come out of the discussions taking place right now about uh changes and improvements and enhancements that can be made um is how can we make this process a bit more transparent uh so that those who may not even see themselves as a potential warming center might uh uh read the process and the requirements and say hey actually I'm uh we might be able to be a warming center uh are there any discussions about how to try to uh strengthen our communications with the with the public around this process yeah we've been taking a few different tacks with that um I have been talking with uh leaders from a couple of different uh religious conferences uh the Holston Conference for example which is over a lot of the United Methodist churches in the area um and they've been doing some outreach to their member churches to say hey this is a possibility would you be interested um I also have uh church partners who have been reaching out to one another even across denominations um which you know I think has to be somewhat unprecedented um to ask one another you know could we partner to do this um so those have really I I've been focusing in on um you know religious uh religious leadership organizations and and religious governance organizations to try to um to try to get that word out um and um you know part of the resolution that we passed was also asking for some additional thought because we know that you all are thinking about these things about you know different populations who need uh who have different needs and and may not feel as comfortable in the religious um uh warming centers um any progress in that area uh no because insurance tends to be the big problem so um what I have been told by all the churches that we have worked with over the past three winters is that as long as the warming center is an official ministry of the church approved by their board that it is generally covered by their existing ministry policy um sometimes with a nominal increase but it has never been very much um when we start looking at other types of facilities um it becomes apparent real fast that people have to purchase a special insurance policy in order to do this and that has been a deal breaker every single time and that's not a requirement that we are putting on these facilities this is simply they're in reality Ms.

Parker uh can I go to Mr Grant please oh just one more last one okay it's not my last but I can make it one for now but um in terms of the facility inspection by the engineer is that a cost that the city takes on or yes do our partners that's a cost that uh the city uh absorbs on behalf of a facility's willingness to serve in that capacity mr councilman grant thank you um this is more so to um kevin dubos and what Ben Bentley were talking about in terms of the home ownership program and um you know I definitely want to give credit to you guys because I've had I have seen the value in that um with a lot of Knoxville residents um that I've had the opportunity of getting to have that conversation with um but you said something interesting Ben when you mentioned um that there is no cap right in terms of being able to uh take that voucher and help these residents become homeowners and so you know what are ways that we can get this out get this out there right get the word out there to these residents you know so they can take the year or two get their credit up or whatever it is that they need to do um to be able to capitalize on that um you know when you look at the homeowners program uh you know Kevin I think that's a great thing

Um but you said something interesting, Ben, when you mentioned um that there is no cap, right, in terms of being able to uh take that voucher and help these residents become homeowners.

And so, you know, what are ways that we can get this out, get this out there, right?

Get the word out there to these residents, you know, so they can take the year or two get their credit up or whatever it is that they need to do um to be able to capitalize on that.

Um, you know, when you look at the homeowners program, uh, you know, Kevin, I think that's a great thing.

I I don't know how we're gonna do it, but I would love to duplicate that, right?

In terms of support.

Um when I when I've been able to talk to um our East Tennessee realtors here locally, you're looking at about 64% of our city residents are renters.

And you know, with uh when you have over half the city renting, rise in rent and utility costs, right?

It hits majority of our residents directly.

And um, you know, that data also shows that most of the increase in housing is cost burden is happening to renters, not homeowners.

And so, you know, what are ways we can kind of turn that nozzle, you know, even making it 50-50.

I would love to see 60% of homeownership um compared to you know, 60% of renters.

Uh, and then also when you mentioned the uh $50,000 income is rent burden.

Uh I look at our our first responders, right?

So if I'm a first responder, I can't even afford a home, right?

And so just figuring out ways that we can better support not only our first responders, right, our public service workers, um, but then also other city residents who don't meet that income threshold.

So I would love to, I don't know if that's expanding the program, more education, but what are some ways you think we can do that?

I'll start and I'll throw it over to um to uh Ben absolutely agree with uh councilman uh Grant.

Um we're gonna be bringing to council more home ownership um projects.

Um you know, for a season we were very focused on this issue of displacement and driving the number of rental units to you know, hopefully make our town more attainable.

Um the barrier to answer your question, the the overall barrier that I see the most is the interest rates.

You know, the the above seven percent um just created such a gap that very few um could achieve it, you know, because if you you look at a you know, pretty much a three-bedroom, two-bath house is gonna be upwards of two seventy-five to three hundred thousand.

And you look at at uh seven percent mortgage on that, and you know, it's 22, 2300 a month, you know.

So the good news is that season is changing slowly, and more folks are getting qualified.

Um, you know, and um so we're gonna be bringing a 22 unit strictly home ownership deal to you pretty soon, and we're working with um um our nonprofit partners.

We're calling it removing obstacles to homeownership program.

And what they're telling us is hey, we can bring more buyers to to the table, but we deal with so many obstacles.

You know, we're in the city and um, you know, the infrastructure is old.

Um get a KUB connection, you know, I gotta pay $10,000.

Um I'm having to do an environmental review because I'm within so many uh feet of a brown field.

So we're we're we're trying to, you know, set up a program that to not only prevent those costs from being passed down to the home buyer, but help these, you know, nonprofit developers and for-profit developers do um homeownership less expensively.

So that's one of the things that we're already thinking about and working on and would love to uh continue working with you all as a council to uh get the word out.

But um, you know, once we start to see more folks get qualified, I do think you're gonna see homeownerships take off again.

Thank you.

Uh um and before you get into uh before you answer Ben, I just kind of want to mention you know, Kevin, when you mentioned that it's costing us about 300 to 400,000 per unit with these affordable housing projects.

I had the fortunate opportunity to be at the ribbon cut and for the Hero on the Hill over off Liberty Street.

Amazing project.

Um, you know, we have our students who, you know, Knox County students were building these homes, these tiny homes.

And from what I've been able to find out, is those are only costing half, right?

You're looking about anywhere between 120 to 150,000 to build those units.

Do you think that's a project that we can possibly duplicate in other areas?

Yes, 100%.

I I do.

Um two years ago, I was asked about um tiny homes being funded with some of our resources.

And um, you know, of course um our affordable housing fund ordinance, you see how it's defined, so which implies that there needs to be the ability to accept a voucher on these properties.

And so um in order to accept the voucher, um, you know, the units would need to uh meet housing quality standards, uh, which you know mainly have a full kitchen and things like that.

So two years ago I was like, uh I don't know, I don't know.

But I want to give credit to KCDC because they have cracked the code um with um Heroes Hill with Liberty Place with Lumen Flats, those are all micro units uh and tiny homes that have the ability to uh accept vouchers.

So, you know, um I do see both, you know, projects like Heroes Hill being a possibility, but also am very interested in um an in field model.

You know, we have all of these in field lots um in the city.

We don't have a lot of greenfields, but we have um in field lots and that are conducive to um smaller, you know, cottage style.

And and this is not a new thing.

You look at mechanics, we'll add all the the shotgun houses, the the Creole cottages, you know, the these existed, you know, prior to 1940 in in our town, and I'd love to see see more of that.

But you know, the point I was making earlier was that because of the lie techs and all the money coming outside of the community, even though it's 400,000 uh in total cost, it's not costing our community that.

You know, the money's coming elsewhere.

The the money that the taxpayer in the city of Knoxville are paying is about sixteen thousand dollars uh, you know, uh for home.

Uh I want to say housing unit, I'm gonna say home.

And um, you know, so if uh, you know, basically, and and I'll say this again, I'm supportive of tiny houses, but I would leave you with this.

Um just to justify the how we're thinking about things.

Um we've spent 46 million dollars affordable housing fund, about 55 million total, including other resources in housing.

That's produced 3,400 units.

If we were to spend $55 million on $75,000 tiny homes, we would be able to build about $700.

So yes, we need m more of the same, but we don't need to stop what we're doing because what we're doing is working.

Excuse me.

Excuse me, Councilman Grant.

Um we Mr.

Bentley has a hard stop at eight o'clock.

So um he may be able to answer your question before he goes, but with our resident experts leaving, we probably need to wrap some of this up and um have some individual conversations with them one on one.

Mr.

Bentley, can you answer his question quickly before you leave?

Yeah, I'm gonna do the old echo thing.

I've heard most of y'all up there do that before too.

Um so really obviously Kevin said the right story, which is interest rates grew.

The problem is when interest rates grow, anybody with a mortgage doesn't move anymore.

So the inventory for Knoxville from a housing ownership standpoint went way down.

And that was the challenge big time for the last three years.

I think we're moving in sort of a new phase of that.

You're seeing more inventory on the market, stuff sitting there longer, prices are starting to fall.

So uh interest rates are still gonna be a problem, but if you start to see prices edge down, that's helpful in what people can afford.

Thank you.

I I will say things go up a whole lot more quickly than they come down.

And so that that is part of the the mapping of that.

And I will just say um thank you to all of you who came and shared with us.

Um I think this is a fabulous presentation to get us all up to date on all the things that we're doing as a city.

We have done tremendous work.

And and we are adjourned.