When speaking to reporters on Friday, Nashville Mayor John Cooper addressed the growing homeless population throughout the city.
Detailing that he often visits the West Nashville homeless camp at Brookmeade Park, Cooper claimed the city is still working to address the problem.
“The city has not been unsuccessful. It has fulfilled its goal for the year in finding housing for unsheltered neighbors. Now the need is greater than that, so we’ve already gone through the 500 placements that we felt we had this year, but that just shows the problem is getting worse in real time,” said Mayor Cooper, noted by WZTV.
“It’s not acceptable long-term in the city as we negotiate good answers for individuals.”
Throughout the city, there are approximately a dozen homeless camps, and 1,200 and 1,600 individuals live in camps, according to WKRN.
Officials have worked to find a solution to the problem, including potentially purchasing buildings to relocate the individuals to.
“If it’s an abandoned apartment building or a hotel, we’ve been looking at a couple of hotels in the area and nobody wants to sell, but anything that would sort of keep them safe but at the same time allow us to support them in a much better way,” said Metro Councilman Thom Druffel.
Previously, the city committed $37.5 million to affordable housing projects and used COVID-19 relief funds to house over 300 homeless individuals.
The city also established two new Mobile Housing Navigation sites that can serve up to 40 people at once.
“Up to 20 people at each site will receive immediate stabilization and intensive support services. The small-group approach is proven to reduce the time people spend on the path from homelessness to stable housing,” the city said of the mobile housing program.
Cooper detailed that twenty individuals from the Brookmeade Park camp were relocated into the housing program.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Complaining and blaming will do nothing to change anything. This isn’t a democrat or republican issue…it’s an issue for us…Nashvillians.
Cooper and his “Mr. Rogers” blue sweater need to go…..
I disagree with Little John. He, his predecessors and their hopefully stupid council have been very successful in luring bums to overrun Nashville. That in itself would be enough for me to stay away but the nastiness of the downtown “entertainment” area makes me sick. No more Nashville based concerts or plays for this family. You can take your hellhole and keep it.
It’s an amazing narrative.
Nashville Homelessness is a sign of systemic failure.
In Nashville, Democrats have veto-proof-plus control of the system.
Therefore, to combat Nashville homelessness, we need to continue to vote for Democrats.
liberals never fix anything.
look at the war on poverty – didnt move the needle one bit. just garnered votes for the dems as intended.
clowns!
the war on “poverty” is unwinnable because of how they define”poverty”. As long as there is a bottom 10%, no matter how well they live, there will be “poverty” by their definition.
Politicians always use percentages to disguise the real numbers and to confuse the gullible public. Besides the designated poverty level is a fictional number some government bureaucrat dreamt up to push their agenda.
# “FJC” Get it Commie!
We have a Nashville City Hall, and a State Capital, full of soul-less people, of course we’re going to have streets full of homeless people.
The State had the opportunity a few years back to say “NO” to on-line sports betting, but our State legislature and our current Governor wanted the “extra money”, no matter the “cost”. Our esteemed City government gives millions of dollars to shadow organizations to build “affordable” housing, yet none ever get built.
The Democrats want to go back to their glory days of slavery. and the Republicans worship the all mighty buck! Both claim to have a Bible in one hand while wielding the “sword” of Government in the other. It’s sick!
Mr. Cooper, you and the city HAVE been successful. You’ve successfully pushed the homeless out of downtown to the suburbs, where they are on every corner panhandling, with some of them spilling over into my county.
Heck man, we got people panhandling that aren’t even homeless. Saw one guy on the corner go to his late model Ford F150 to charge his cell phone. With the holidays coming up, it is just going to get worse, with people sometimes making more money panhandling than at their real job.
I wonder how many people he personally made homeless because of his covid policies and tax increases. Politicians care more about donations than they do constituents, its all about the money. Buying a hotel for homeless, ridiculous, why not develop a whole new city where all of the homeless can move to, I am surprised he did not want to buy them a failed mall, such a big hearted guy he is from such a short stature, with our MONEY!
The fact that Nashville has established “homeless camps” with names speaks volumes already.
Alas, poor Nashville, I knew him…!
Democrats have little time to abandon their Party’s Flag of Destitution, crime, and waste. The longer Nashville stays on the Dark Side of DEMs, the harder it will be, and more tax costly!, later… to fix.
Adieu Nashville, adieu; you were a beauty from the past, that swayed, and fell in the muck. And unless you Right yourself, the city and constituents of, Nashville are all on the path of San Fransicko. Soon, your name will be… Crashville, or Nah’ville, or Fentanylville.
Currently, all Nashville is… is “that place you avoid”, or wear your concealed weapon.