NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's been more than two years, but Nashville leaders say they’re close to having an engineer approve their pod shelters for housing the homeless.
Nashville spent $1.2 million of COVID-19 relief money to buy 108 of these shelters in 2021. The city was then supposed to send a letter to the state Fire Marshal’s Office signed by an engineer and Metro Codes stating that these shelters met state and local safety standards. So far, that has not happened.
Senior advisor Ginger Hausser of Mayor John Cooper’s office gave updates at the last two Homelessness Planning Council meetings, where she described a stalemate with the Fire Marshal’s Office.
“The council lady (Council member Erin Evans) and I and the fire department met with the state Fire Marshal’s Office and sat around the table and said how do we get to a solution here,” Hausser said.
Kevin Walters, a spokesperson for the Fire Marshal’s Office, told NewsChannel5 Investigates that their answer has been the same for the last two years. He says Metro has known his office needs this letter before the state can approve the use of these pods for any type of housing.
Hausser updated the Homelessness Planning Council again last week. She told the council that she’s been “politely nudging” the engineer, who is working for free, but reassured everyone that a letter was on the way.
“We will have that very shortly,” Hausser said.
April Calvin is the executive director of Nashville’s Office of Homeless Services.
It's a new title with a lot of the same questions.
For example, why has it taken this long to do what the state has asked and help house some of the more than estimated 2,100 people living on the streets of Nashville?
“There’s a lot that is going into making a very sound decision on the effective use of these pods,” Calvin said.
The answer from Metro officials and emergency personnel early on has been that these shelters were meant for emergencies and not the homeless.
Several shelters were once set up outside the Nashville Rescue Mission as COVID isolation pods before they were taken down and stored with the remaining pods in an undisclosed location in the city.
Pallet CEO Amy King says they’ve made it clear from the beginning 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 across 85 cities in 22 states, which equates to almost 4,000 shelters across the country.
Most people stay between three to six
months and King says this helps them stabilize before they find something long-term. But critics say this could leave Nashville without a valuable resource if Nashville is hit with another natural disaster.
As for price, King says simply buying the shelters is just the beginning. There’s also the question of where we put these shelters?
“On the operating side, it does cost money to operate these sites and it should. These sites need management. They need provisions. People who live there need access to running water, access to hygiene, and access to food,” King said.
It’s a lot to consider, which is why beginning last year, King says Pallet no longer ships these shelters to any city where they don’t have a plan to offer essential services.
Nashville just happened to buy before this change, which means the city is not held to those same expectations.
Hausser said they will, however, submit a plan of action to Metro council members by the end of October.
“I think we want to make sure they’re deployed safely,” Hausser said.
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.
King says she knows it’s tough for innovation to fit into every code there is, but says she remains optimistic. They’ve built temporary communities all over the country and if Nashville needs proof, it could be as simple as picking up a map.
“We’re here to help. Nashville knows that. I’ve had conversations with several folks there, and we’ve offered support. So, we’re here to help. We want to see them be successful with the product,” King said.
King says Nashville is not the only city customer with shelters currently sitting in storage.
We reached out to the Office of Homeless Services for comment, and we are still waiting on a statement.
