SUMMARY OF RESEARCH - presented by Merri Mai Williamson to City Council, upon return from her visits to homeless complexes in Austin, Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Phoenix, Arizona.


Council Representatives:  Allow me to first thank you for the time you have allotted me for this presentation.

It is with the utmost love and respect for my neighborhood and this city that I find myself standing before you today to deliver weeks of research and eight days of discovery, summarized in fifteen minutes.  I am, therefore, providing you with copies of my most up-to-date report, to review thoroughly as our community delves deeper into real solutions to address the issues of homelessness.  I am confident that our best hope for ending chronic homelessness in the future lies in our capacity to have open and honest conversations without fear of retribution, political maneuverings, or sinking to personal attacks.  My goal is to remain focused on the issue and encourage collaborative discussions that engage all of our interested citizens.  It is, after all, the “Chattanooga Way”.

Born in Chattanooga and a product of the public school system here, I am now the owner of an award-winning business, a private investigative agency that specializes in pre-employment background checks.  Having been recognized as Small Business of the Year by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce in 2001, as well as receiving two recognitions in 2004 for our excellence in ethics, it is well within my nature to question anything of substance that I hear.  After all, 30% of everything you see on an employment application is false; and it’s up to my firm to determine where the falsehoods lie.  So when the proposal of a homeless complex was announced and details began to emerge about what our city leaders had seen and heard in other communities, I immediately did what came natural to me: I questioned the veracity of the statements and wanted to verify the claims for myself.  This led to my decision to embark on an eight-day journey, visiting homeless complexes and the surrounding communities in Austin, Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Phoenix, Arizona.

The following is a concise summary of the content within this full report:

AUSTIN, TEXAS

In every city I visited, controversies swirled around the presence of the homeless service providers.  Even though their work was noble and had some measures of success, those affected by its location were not engaged in early conversations and had not received regular and consistent communication.  Austin was no exception.  I believe we can learn a lesson from this and immediately engage all who will be impacted by any project that comes to fruition, regardless of size, scope, or location.  

As a reporter from WRCB TV (Channel 3) accompanied me on this portion of my trip, segments of my discussions with service providers, homeless individuals, and business owners have been airing.  I feel that Channel 3 has appropriately represented the highlights that I would share with you today.  Therefore, I will simply state that I could not find one business owner within blocks of Austin’s Resource Center for the Homeless that felt its location did not contribute to the crime, panhandling, and loitering they dealt with as part of their daily operations.  I did, in fact, interview a couple who has lived for forty years approximately three blocks from the ARCH’s current location.  Their experience very much reminded me of the similarities to my own neighborhood: the prosperous years, the decades of decline, the investments for revitalization, and the struggle to maintain any momentum while fighting the daily challenges presented by having a concentration of homeless so nearby.

I must also add that visiting the housing provided by Foundation Communities at Garden Terrace was a refreshing experience.  An old nursing home was converted to apartments to offer supportive housing, with common areas such as a kitchen, computer lab, a game and television room, as well as a courtyard.  The well-maintained facility filled me with hope that similar structures could be renovated in Chattanooga, offering a home to those whose financial situations leave them without a roof over their heads and a place to call their own.  Further, meeting Sandy, one of the residents of Garden Terrace, was uplifting and inspirational.  I could not help but wish, after talking with Sandy, that all homeless individuals aspired to work with service providers to improve their situations and restore their lives to some sense of normalcy.

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

My travel itinerary did not allow for much time in Albuquerque, as I had not garnered a sense that the complex visited by our city leaders was actually a good comparison to the proposed location of our own potential complex.  The Joy Junction is, after all, not located in a downtown setting, but out in a mixed industrial and housing area about a ten-minute drive from downtown.  As a result of this discovery, I had not established contact with Dr. Jeremy Reynalds, the director, weeks in advance as I had with my other scheduled appointments in all of the cities.  However, because Dr. Reynalds had been contacted by our city and led to believe that my intentions were ill-founded, I felt compelled to make contact with him, apologize for any confusion that our city’s communication might have caused, assure him that my goal was to obtain the facts, and accept his offer for a one-hour visit to Joy Junction.  Despite my tight schedule, I accommodated a tour and discussion with Dr. Reynalds and was pleased that he believes in setting expectations for those who take advantage of his services.  As we engaged in philosophical discussion and toured a small portion of his 52-acre complex, it became quite apparent to me that the faith-based approach taken by Joy Junction would most likely not be entertained by our community, based on comments made during recent task force meetings in which I participated.

My scheduled itinerary in Albuquerque actually kept me in the downtown area, meeting with the shelter director at St. Martin’s Hospitality Center, which is a day resource center, as well as watching the flow of homeless from that facility to the night shelters in the vicinity.  It was also important for me to monitor how many ventured into the central business district and what impact that had on the business people downtown.  The foot traffic from one location to the next was constant, and it was clear that the neighbors of these service sites were annoyed at a minimum.  The transients throughout downtown were no less significant.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Out of the three cities I investigated, I felt that Phoenix had the most comprehensive philosophy for addressing the issue of homelessness and was, by far, the most enlightening.  This prompted me to cancel the last leg of my original travel plan to Seattle and remain in Phoenix for three additional days.  The CEO of Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS), Mark Holleran, was gracious in providing me a tour and answering extensive questions for four and a half hours.  The statistical data he provided was alarming, noting that they had the highest number of sex offenders in the region and that the jails released offenders one block away from CASS if the ex-convict indicated that he/she had no home.  However, the facility opened just last November and was very impressive in its amenities and layout.  Further, the CEO’s passion for ending chronic homelessness and his business acumen left me feeling that his strong leadership was certainly what we needed to implement real solutions for the homeless in Chattanooga.

However, to gather perspectives from all vantage points, I began the arduous task of conducting surveillance of the area within a five-block radius of CASS.  During this time, I interviewed many of the businesses within blocks of CASS and discovered that many of them have been owned by the same family for two and three generations, having been established long before the homeless population began to grow and concentrated services were instituted.  Their experiences have been so devastating that I received the resounding and unilateral message that placing a complex like CASS in our community should not even be considered.  The vast number of homeless individuals wandering up and down the streets at all hours of the day and night, crawling over their fences, stealing anything that they can sell, urinating on the sidewalks and defecating in their alleys, sleeping in their company vehicles, dropping trash wherever they are, and abusing illegal drugs on the sides of their buildings are only a few of the many concerns I heard over and over again.

Additionally, I continued to drive through the historic neighborhood, which is located five blocks from CASS and spoke with any resident I saw in the area.  As with the business owners, the residents did not hesitate to speak with me candidly about the difficulties that they continue to face everyday.  Nothing is sacred in their yards or on their streets, as thefts occur regularly and cars are broken into.  Fencing in the front and back yards is extremely common in this neighborhood, along with “No Trespassing” signs to allow the police to arrest anyone that does not belong.  I personally viewed hypodermic needles along the fences, while homeless people smoked marijuana openly in the adjacent park – a park in which signs are posted, banning the homeless.  The parents explained that their children were not allowed to play outside alone due to the incalculable number of sex offenders registered in their area.  Women repeatedly stated that they would not walk outside alone at night, even with their big dogs.  Although incentives are offered by their neighborhood association, homeowners are difficult to attract; and absentee landlords do not engage in responsible ownership, allowing their unrented properties to be inhabited by the homeless for periods of time which contributes to the crime in the neighborhood.

IN CONCLUSION

I realize that some of my remarks have painted a picture that none of us would care to visualize here in Chattanooga.  However, if we are truly to address the needs of the homeless while protecting the incredible progress of revitalization, it is incumbent upon us all to recognize the struggles of others and learn from their challenges.  I have faith in this community and in this Council, that we can together show compassion for those who are less fortunate by embracing the vision set forth by the creators of “The Blueprint to End Chronic Homelessness in the Chattanooga Region in Ten Years”.  It is my prayer that our city leaders will demonstrate courage and respect for the Chattanooga Homeless Coalition by providing them with the necessary resources to begin implementation of the nine steps within “The Blueprint”.

Allow me to express my gratitude to each of you for your service to this community, and I will now entertain any questions you may have of me.