NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Years after Nashville spent $1.2 million on pod shelters, state officials now say these shelters meet their requirements as an option for short-term housing.
The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance sent Metro Nashville officials a memo on Wednesday saying they've now deemed the structures from Pallet Shelters as compliant with state guidelines and can be used for short-term housing.
Officials with the state Fire Marshal's office initially expressed concerns over whether these shelters met their requirements to use them for anything other than emergency housing. This included finding a solution for the lack of a thermal barrier for these shelters, which the memo says, "Nashville is permitted to provide an alternative approval pursuant to adopted code."
In order to be in compliance, the state says the units have to be at least 12 feet apart.
Nashville purchased 108 of these structures in 2021 using COVID-19 relief money with the intention of providing emergency shelter in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.
Soon Metro officials realized these structures could be used as transition housing for the homeless.
City officials were told they had to find a state-licensed engineer willing to sign off on the safety of these structures even though the pods had been used to house homeless communities around the country.
Months turned to years with almost all of these shelters sitting in storage.
The city set up a few of the shelters outside the Nashville Rescue Mission during the pandemic to serve as COVID isolation pods. After that they were taken down and put back into storage.
Pallet CEO Amy King told NewsChannel 5 Investigates last year that these shelters can serve multiple purposes, including temporary housing.
“When we created the product and the concept of the village model, it was meant for both things. To be clear, at Pallet, we believe that homelessness is an emergency and should be treated as such,” King said.
King says they’ve already built 120 homeless villages in 85 cities across 22 states. That's nearly 4,000 shelters being used across the country.
Most people stay between three and six months. King says this helps them stabilize before they find something long-term. But critics say this could leave Nashville without a valuable resource the next time the city is hit with another natural disaster.
NewsChannel5 Investigates asked King what she thinks about Nashville's hesitation over the safety of her products.
“My response to that would be: is living on the streets safe? This is a much safer option than the alternative. There are fires and dangerous situations in encampments all the time. We don’t talk about that, but we talk about them in relationship with our sites, which we should and we’re happy to address any safety concerns,” King said.
This is a developing story. We will let you know if, and when, the city decides to deploy the pods.
