7.9.09

For the past several months a group of people have been working to find housing alternative for many of the residents of Tent City. Most of the people living in Tent City are not there out of choice, but rather out of necessity. They have had some type of disruption in their lives that has put them out of their house. Rather than sleeping on the street or under a bridge they have found a tent or other temporary shelter and moved into Tent City. While there probably are a few that would prefer to be in that environment over an apartment, I’ve never met one of them.
In Nashville, one of our biggest challenges is the actual available inventory of affordable housing. We seem to have plenty of $150,000 and up places to live. If you are able to pay $500 a month for rent then there are places available. The Metro government provides income-based housing (affectionately known as “the projects”) with a minimum rent of $50 per month. Once you start to work the rent changes to 30% of you income. Most of these units were built in the 50’s and 60’s. There’s a refurbishing project underway which is causing people to be moved out so the construction can take place. To provide places for these folks, MDHA (Metro Housing Authority) put a freeze on any vacant units in order that the existing tenants could be moved into them. This has caused tremendous ripples in the system of helping people get off the street.

There are some private income-based housing providers but the economy and the lending market have made it very tough for them to get funding to bring units on-line. This past month we were able to secure units for 16 people. It was last week that we learned that Metro only had the budget to underwrite the rent expense for 13 of these people. Otter Creek was called and asked to help raise the funds for the other 3 units ($250 deposit and $350 per month for up to 6 months). Each of the people being assisted have a case manager and are working a program designed to help them get work. Having a permanent address and place to live is foundational to the stability necessary to make the next step of employment. The challenge was that when the call came for help, we had only 3 days before the units would be offered to other people. With this short notice there was not enough time to get the word out to other churches that might be willing to help. So Otter Creek stepped up and funded the deposit and first month’s rent for a 3 units!! We’re now in the process of getting out a request to local churches, synagogues and mosques seeking partners willing to pay for one to six months of rent for these folks. If you read this and would like to consider having your church become involved, email me and we’ll set up a time to meet.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling one gets when you look in the eyes of people getting to move into their apartment after having lived on the streets or in a tent. The first couple moved in yesterday and called us multiple times to thank us for making that possible. I know $600 dollars (deposit and rent) is a lot of money to many of us. But in the big picture it’s really not that much money. It has made a difference in the lives of this couple and has opened up the door for an on-going relationship that has the potential to introduce them to a new community and a new way of living that puts Christ at the center of their lives. Now that’s what I call being a Christian…