Nashville police commander wants to cap, close Tent City homeless camp
Advocates fight cap on homeless camp
By Nicole Young
THE TENNESSEAN
Police Cmdr. Damian Huggins told the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission on Tuesday that it's time to put a limit on the number of homeless people at Tent City and move toward shutting down the site near the Cumberland River.
But homeless advocates say closing the camp will drive the residents back to the streets and make it more difficult for them to get the help they need.
"These people are in a set location where they are able to be reached and they can reach out to us," said Jeannie Alexander, a homeless outreach advocate with Park Center. "The reason that people are continuing to come to Tent City is because they can get services there. It's not the fastest process, but it's happening."
As of this week, more than 40 people have been moved out of Tent City and placed into permanent housing, Alexander said.
"What we can't lose sight of is that these people aren't statistics. They are human beings and they are asking for help," she said. "I can't as a human being turn my back on another human being asking me for help.
"Putting a cap on Tent City with no alternative for the other people who show up there asking for help doesn't solve homelessness. It just pretends it doesn't exist."
Crime has increased nearby
Huggins, the police commander who oversees the Central Precinct in downtown Nashville, still wants the camp closed, citing safety concerns and an increase in downtown crime.
A breakdown of the calls for service shows that the majority of the calls in about a mile radius of Tent City — 137 of 184 calls in a year — were attributed to reports of a suspicious person or requests for an officer for an unspecified reason.
Reports of a person with a weapon increased from three to nine, and calls for an intoxicated person grew from two calls to five this year.
Huggins says he is frustrated by Tent City's growing population. He believes the homeless at the camp, near Anthes Drive, are contributing to crime in the area.
The camp has grown from a handful of residents to about 80 during the past year.
"I think we need to cap it off and move forward," Huggins said. "We need a list of who is down there currently and stop the resources at that point. This is not a safe place for people."
Alternative site sought
Councilman Erik Cole, chairman of the commission, said officials had been working with the Metro Development and Housing Agency in the search for an alternative site for a homeless encampment for about six months with little luck.
"I don't know how to make a cap on Tent City work without having another site to direct these people to when they need help," Cole said. "There's going to be homeless people. That's not going to go away. It's obvious that they are migrating to Tent City to get services."
The commission will meet in two weeks to continue the discussion.
