In a hastily convened news conference to announce plans that seemed to be sort of still coalescing in real time before the skeptical eyes of local media members, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and interim Knoxville Mayor Daniel Brown said Wednesday afternoon that they were going to "hit the reset button" (Burchett's words) on the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. The resignations of TYP director Jon Lawler and his deputy Robert Finley had already been announced in the morning, though no official reason was given for them. Not that one had to be; Lawler has been criticized for months by both opponents and supporters of the Ten-Year Plan for failing to build community support for the difficult job of placing homeless housing in neighborhoods around the city.
But what happens now seemed still fairly vague. Burchett introduced anti-TYP activist Ron Peabody, who tried to organize a petition drive to stop the plan last year, and environmental attorney Stephanie Matheny, who leads a pro-TYP citizens group, and said the two of them would be heading up some kind of committee or task force to work with neighborhood groups and discuss options for housing the homeless. Who else might be on the committee or task force is apparently still up in the air. "This has all just developed in the last five or six days," Peabody explained. Questions about why the changes were being announced with such apparent urgency even though details hadn't been worked out went unanswered, except that it was obviously pegged to Lawler's resignation. Brown said he hadn't even considered what to do with the money budgeted for Lawler and Finley's salaries. Burchett reiterated his opposition to spending any more county money as long as residents of the planned housing are allowed to drink alcohol in their homes.
Matheny, who worked for 11 years on homeless and low-income housing in Seattle, said the important thing was for everyone involved to keep their eyes on the actual mission of the plan. "I would urge all of us to keep in mind the men and women and children who sleep on the streets every night," she said.
One housing unit has already opened under the auspices of the TYP--the renovated Minvilla apartments at 5th and Broadway. A second set is under development at the old Flenniken School in South Knoxville, and both Brown and Burchett said that project will go forward. But whether any more "scattered site" housing will even be attempted is unclear. (Brown had already said there would be no more efforts during his term as mayor, which expires in December.) It is also unclear whether whatever emerges from all this will even be called a Ten-Year Plan. "I'm not big on names like that," Burchett said. "I think you get stuck with that." He added, "I don't think anyone thinks we're going to end homelessness in 10 years."
Brown, who has been a supporter of the TYP during his time on City Council, insisted that the changes do not mark the end of efforts to house the homeless. "The plan is not ended," he said. "The plan is being tweaked."
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