Open Table Gets The Job Done

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As Nashville continues its struggle against lack of affordable housing, outreach specialists and critical services needed to serve the most vulnerable and marginalized in our community, some agencies and advocates stand out from the rest in their tireless effort to bring whatever they can to the table (no pun intended) in order to make life a little easier for those who must endure it homeless.
As I wandered the most recent camp facing closure last week and spoke with residents/friends I've known for many years now, a couple of things were immediately apparent. First, while there were a couple of folks down at the camp trying to provide some outreach, the lack of coordinated, skilled and full-time outreach specialists trained in MI and specializing in person-centered, trauma informed outreach with a housing focus means people will continue to suffer needlessly.
Second, the issue of housing, or more specifically the lack thereof, especially for people who present challenges to traditional units, continues as a glaring reality for us as a city.  Most of the folks at this particular camp are transplants from the original Tent City, which closed on May 5th, 2010 when flood waters along the Cumberland River did what city officials could not; empty the camp completely and wipe out all standing structures. As the waters receded, police began enforcing the "no trespassing" order with a vengeance, arresting and jailing anyone who dared set up a camp site in the area.
The bad news, as far as I'm concerned, is that these two things - lack of outreach and resources - were also the same problems facing folks in the original camp back in the pre-flood days of 2009 and 2010.  Unfortunately for those who remain on the streets, neither has improved and frankly both have worsened considerably since 2010.
I can unequivocally state here that if it had not been for Ingrid over at Open Table and Denis from Operation Stand Down, camp residents would have been in far worse shape than they were, since without them, no one would have even known the camp had been ordered to close.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this whole issue is that even with the confirmation that this camp was closing, the response I perceived from those who are charged with finding solutions to these kinds of issues was a hohum sense of resignation that the folks at the camp were "un-housable" and therefore did not warrant the expenditure of any resources whatsoever.
I don't mean to disparage anyone working in any one of these agencies because I know that for the most part, provider hearts are definitely in the work they're doing.  But I know the sense of frustration many of them feel; not only are so many of the "available" programs out of reach for many of the area homeless because of the eligibility requirements, we've also been pushing this damned "affordable housing" boulder up a mountain that would embarrass Everest with our noses and we've been crushed so many times by the backward slide that many have simply given up pushing.
As governmental budgets shrivel and cuts to funding for agencies continue, we are forced to operate in crisis mode ourselves, reacting to the very worst of the cases instead of trying to proactively end homelessness before folks have so many challenges stacked up on their backs that it's neigh impossible to help them.
It's a never-ending battle that saps the strength, the commitment and the dedication of damned near everyone involved.
That Open Table continues to fight back tirelessly should stand as a testament to the rest of us that we cannot let the disinterest, the lack of funding, the ignorance. and the myriad other issues facing us destroy our own commitment to the cause as we work to end homelessness. 
My deep appreciation goes out to Ingrid and the folks at Open Table for staying on course, no matter what everyone else may or may not be doing.
My colleague and current director of the SOAR program at Park Center Corey Gephart and I will be presenting a short piece on the need for outreach/services during our upcoming Nashville Metropolitan Homelessness Commission meeting (3/2 at 9a),  I'm hoping to highlight the challenges facing us as service providers and then promote the return to the primary focus of the Commission: making affordable housing a reality for the people of Nashville. There's no doubt whatsoever that we are in desperate need of it and it cannot come too soon.