Shipe addresses helping the homeless
By Mike Steely
Senior Writer
steelym@knoxfocus.com
Earlier this month, community activist Vivian Shipe addressed the Knoxville City Council during the Public Comment part of the meeting. Her remarks struck home for many of the listeners and maybe even some council members. She talked about the homeless in our city and what should be done to help. Here are her remarks.
Webster’s defines a mock drill as a simulated emergency situation where people practice how they would respond in a real crisis, allowing them to test and improve their emergency procedures. Had last week’s cold spell been a graded event, Knoxville would have received an F minus.
We now have a chance to correct a few things. We need to move some money around in the budget to properly supply ALL four warming centers designated by the city as a place of refuge for those unhoused. The centers are to be open until February 28th, we need to plan and supply accordingly. It is not fair nor feasible to designate KARM as the pickup spot for the other warming centers. Even though KARM receives funding from the city, they were also on the news asking for donations to be brought to them.
The current plan, designed to create a space in each part of the city, has instead created half-stocked silos where the volunteers are having to ask for water, toilet paper, even oatmeal to be brought to them. Unacceptable.
We see the reports of all the salt purchased in preparation MONTHS ago in anticipation of the coming winter months. Where was the preparation to provide a safe haven for the people you already knew would be in need?
Here are suggestions collected from the people who elected you to represent everyone:
First of all, freezing is 32 degrees – not 25 degrees. The freezing point should be the white flag call for the people to come in from the cold. Change the time to leave the centers to 9 a.m. You are putting them out in the dark before the morning rays can even begin to warm the land.
Run warming buses around the city – picking up and dropping off to the centers. Use the electric buses. Open the coliseum floor, lease the old Food City in the west, the old Kmart building in the north, or lease the old Greyhound building downtown. We can even purchase twenty by thirty tents to deploy and set up during the winter months to provide more space for those seeking refuge.
We have 1,830 known homeless in this city and to say we are at capacity, there is no room here for you and closing the door in the face of one in need is not what Jesus would do – even though it was done to him.
Provide the funding DIRECTLY to the locations who are running the warming centers and stop trying to tell them how to do the job they are the best at doing. Make these recurring and unrestricted funds. The city does not have to control every penny given to entities. Give them what they need to get the job done.
Finally, in the spring, when the budget is announced, let there be with the many pages of the promises made a section that funds a department designed to not only prepare for the care and restoration of the homeless, but programs designed to rebuild lives.
We have spent decades cutting off the feet of those trying to learn to walk again. Most recently when we cast back into the street those who were working on rebuilding their lives.
This Thursday we will hold a candlelight vigil for those known souls who died on our streets in 2024. To make such those numbers decrease, we must be intentional and do more. It is time we offer real help to those who are willing to create space and work with those who want to rebuild their lives. That includes all the new homeless people on our streets due to a housing crisis not created by them.
It is time to stop turning our heads, stop putting a band aid on the hole in the dam.
It is enough.
Vivian Shipe, Founder/Director, I Am The Voice of the Voiceless
Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition to Host Memorial Service
WHAT: A candlelight walk from the Volunteer Ministry Center parking lot will precede the memorial service at St. John’s Lutheran Church.
WHEN: Thursday, December 19, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM
WHERE: The walk starts at the Volunteer Ministry Center parking lot (511 N Broadway) and continues with an indoor service hosted by St. John’s Lutheran Church (544 N Broadway).
WHO: Friends and family of those who died, advocates, service providers, shelters, faith-based organizations, concerned citizens, civil leaders, public officials, and local and state legislators are invited.
