KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — A new Continuum of Care Board approved a three-year strategic plan to address homelessness in Knoxville and Knox County. The Board is made up of a range of community leaders and experts in health care, social services, local government, law enforcement and people who have experienced homelessness firsthand.
“It’s really important to have folks with lived experience of homelessness, because they know the ways the system is working now, and the ways that it could be more effective,” Erin Read, the executive director of the Knoxville-Knox County Office of Housing Stability, said. “You also, of course, want to have leaders in the room who can command influence and resources, so we can make the changes that we see needed to be made.”
Read said the new Board has been in the works for about a year now. The group will make decisions about how the homeless services system functions, how data flows and how referrals move between organizations…