The Nashville Homeless Power Project was founded in June 2002 by Homeless and Formerly Homeless People (HFHP) who were part of a homeless discussion group called the Living Room. The Living Room was a safe place for HFHP and never-been-homeless to share their experiences, strengths, and hopes. Every week we would learn of abuses of people on the street by police officers or about another family without a place to stay or another homeless person who worked without pay. There wasn't the space or the capacity in the Living Room to thoroughly address these issues. It was with this need that a few of the HFHP from the group decided to form the NHPP.

Since May 2006, NHPP has transformed into a $120,000 per year organization with
501c3 status, 15 leadership team members, and 2.5 staff. NHPP has gotten the city to put $800,000 toward housing for homeless people. We have also secured commitments from the Mayoral Candidates for more housing funds in the coming years. We have generated over 750 media hits, and made major steps in the NHPP Shelter Accountability Project.

Recent Major Accomplishments (last 12 months):

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE & CAPACITY

Acquired fully functioning, homeless-run office in heart of downtown accessible to City Hall,

State Capitol, and homeless people.

Hired 3 full-time staff people, two of whom are formerly homeless individuals.

Raised $120,000 through grants, large donors, events, and grassroots fundraising.

Developed 15-person board (Leadership Team) with committees and action team.Over 200 formal homeless members, hundreds more that participate in events, and hundreds of allies.

CAMPAIGNS

The Road Home Campaign: NHPP was the primary advocate that influenced the Mayor and City Council to approve a budget on June 30th, 2007 for low-cost housing with services targeted to homeless individuals in the amount of $800,000. NHPP also influenced the reallocation of an additional $600,000 of federal dollars to homeless housing. In the current Mayoral campaign, all but one of the 6 candidates has committed to building 200 housing units per year during their terms in office.

The Shelter Improvement Project: NHPP effectively influenced the city's only and largest emergency shelter to institute a grievance policy and exit policy two policies critical for holding the agency accountable to our members.

Decriminalize Our Lives Campaign: NHPP has trained every new police cadet since January 2005 (over 200 cadets). Developed effective alternative police programs (not yet implemented) with identified officers within Metro Police Department.

Transitional Living Coalition: Formed Coalition of Transitional Living organizations that have effectively addressed issues with council members and have now formalized the coalition.

Get Out the Vote: Registered over 500 homeless and low-income people in Nashville. Received commitments from candidates for Mayor and Council regarding all NHPP projects. 4 Candidates for Mayor spent a night on the street, for the first time in recorded US History according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

We are a 15-person leadership team composed of all homeless and formerly homeless people who are responsible for media work, organizing events, grant writing, outreach and decision-making meetings.

We have sent 10 NHPP leaders to the Nashville Peace and Justice Center Leadership Institute.

We have sent leaders to New York City, Washington, DC, Memphis, and Cleveland for group building and peer collaboration opportunities.

In the three years of existence the NHPP has functioned almost completely with in-kind donations and about $1,000 a year in sporadic financial contributions. All activities are planned, organized and implemented by homeless and formerly homeless individuals. During these three years the NHPP has:

THE LIVING ROOM - 1995 PRESENT
The Living Room is a safe place for homeless, formerly homeless, and homies to share their stories, be heard, and find resources for their everyday lives. The Living Room was founded by homeless and homies to help fill the gaps and give people a place where their respect and dignity can emerge and be witnessed. The Living Room has always been more than a discussion group. Many individuals, including founders of the Nashville Homeless Power Project, have identified the Living Room as a place where they found the community support necessary to remember their value and importance to the world and to work themselves out of addictions as well as get vital friend support as they step out of homelessness. The Living Room has also been a space for homies to cross the class and race segregation line, build relationships, dismantle myths and stereotypes, and learn how to be more effective allies to low-income folks. The Living Room has been held in the living room of the Downtown Presbyterian Church since its inception. It meets almost without fail every Wednesday at 1 p.m. immediately following a lunch that is served in the Church for 150-300 individuals.

JUNE 2002 - HOMELESS POWER PROJECT IS CONCEIVED
Many of the soon-to-be founders of the Power Project realized that the Living Room was the place for people to be listened to, to share, and to heal. It was a place to build trust and to share what is happening in the community. So often people would hear about the issues of injustice that were happening (harassment from police, business owners, tourists, etc.), the lack of housing, the continual injuries on the job, lack of pay and some times total ignoring of workers rights from employers, and so much more. The Living Room was and continues to be an important place for people to share, but did not have a space for these same people to effectively organize.

JULY 2002 - HOMELESS POWER PROJECT IS BORN
With the combination of powerful relationships that had been built amongst homeless, formerly homeless, and homies and recent training received by John Zirker at the National Coalition for the Homeless, willingness from Howard Allen, passion from Karl Smithson, persistence from Emma McCloud, willingness from Jerry West, and the organizing experience of Matt Leber, the Power Project met for the first time in July 2002. The original participants and founders of the Power Project were Jerry West, John Zirker, Howard Allen, Emma McCloud, Daniel Brown, Karl Smithson, Matt Leber, and Toni Clayton.

JULY -SEPTEMBER 2002 - HOMELESS POWER PROJECT TAKES SHAPE
Over these first two months, the Power Project took the first steps in developing who we are and what we are about, and decided our first actions. The first activities were to register homeless to vote and to provide opportunities for folks on the streets to engage with decision makers.

SEPTEMBER 2002 - POWER PROJECT REGISTERS OVER 300 PEOPLE TO VOTE
Working with our strength, the homeless people we know, we went to all of the lunches around town, hung out on the street and helped over 300 people to register to vote.

OCTOBER 2, 2002 - FIRST POWER PROJECT EVENT EVER CANDIDATES FORUM
Utilizing the support of allies at the Downtown Presbyterian Church and potential allies at the GAPS (MDHA-supported network of social services agencies), the Power Project invited candidates and elected officials members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the governor, and the vice mayor. The forum was facilitated by currently homeless individuals and had over 200 homeless individuals in the audience at the Downtown Presbyterian Church. The success of this event, with strong media attention, built credibility for the organization and also broke down stereotypes held by many advocates that the homeless couldn't organize an event themselves.

OCTOBER 2002 - HOMELESS GET HOMELESS OUT TO VOTE
Thanks to the support of vans from allies (Hobson UMC and Downtown Clinic), we registered about 20 homeless people on election day and then dedicated the rest of the time to helping other agencies register low-income people.

DECEMBER 21, 2002 - HOMELESS MEMORIAL DAY
In the early 1990s, the Campus for Human Development and formerly homeless man, Ray Klimely, began organizing an annual homeless memorial. In 2002, Ray Klimely enlisted the Power Projects help. The Power Project began a relationship with Vice Mayor Gentry and enlisted his support to draft a Metro Council Resolution to formally recognize the lives of those that society has forgotten and to acknowledge December 21, 2002 as Homeless Memorial Day. This tradition has continued every year since with the support of Councilman Ludye Wallace (2002) and Michael Jameson (2003 and 2004). It also began a tradition of the largest group of homeless and allies to participate ever (over 100 each year), with music, testimonies, bag pipes, and delicious food cooked by Food Not Bombs.

JANUARY 2003 - POWER PROJECT DEFINES DE-CRIMINALIZATION OF THE POOR AS BROAD-BASED CAMPAIGN
Every Power Project member knows what it means to be criminalized for being poor. The laws in question punish people for activities they taking mainly as a result of being poor, such as resting or sleeping on park benches, walking across private parking lots, urinating in public spaces, and carrying large backpacks that block the sidewalk. The Power Project takes focus on these issues with a goal to build relationships with the Sheriff's Office, the police department, downtown businesses, and the Metro Council.

JULY 2003 - POWER PROJECT BLOCKS ???ILLEGAL TO SLEEP IN YOUR CAR??? ORDINANCE
Living Room roving reporter, Barry, and Power Project member, shares with us that Councilman Ludye Wallace is proposing an ordinance to make it illegal to sleep in your car. We put aside our other work and that day decide to stop the ordinance as soon as possible. The Power Project creates a petition, calls Council Member Wallace to express concerns, and alerts our allies through the Nashville Peace and Justice Center membership. The Power Project starts to organize a homeless-run press conference to condemn the ordinance. The Saturday before the press conference, Councilman Wallace calls the Power Project to let us know that he is withdrawing the ordinance. The Power Project still holds the press conference for the purposes of publicly celebrating our success and to thank the councilman for rethinking his proposal.

AUGUST 6, 2003 - NATIONAL COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS DECLARES NASHVILLE 18TH MEANEST CITY IN THE COUNTRY TO THE HOMELESS

AUGUST 23, 2003 - SHERIFFS OFFICE SUPPORTS POWER PROJECT PROPOSAL TO MOVE BOOKING STATION
Previously, anyone receiving a citation for any type of misdemeanorwhether innocent or guilty had to be booked prior to having the opportunity to a court hearing. The only booking agency was on Harding Place, over six miles away from downtown, with public buses going there only twice each day. In addition, the bus stop is several blocks from the booking agency. Homeless and other people without cars often could not miss a day of work or looking for work, or else they simply chose not to take a entire day to fulfill this requirement. The result was often an arrest warrant and occasionally jailtime . This is an example of criminalization of the poor as a result of bad planning and is also a waste of public officials time and tax payers dollars. The Power Project addressed this issue with the Sheriffs Office in June 2003, presenting them with a petition signed by over 300 homeless individuals. After a couple of meetings, the Power Project arranged for the Sheriff's Office to expand booking to the downtown area, where it continues to be offered all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Power Project held another press conference at the Downtown Presbyterian Church to celebrate this success, educate the public, publicly thank the Sheriff's Office, and to begin to raise awareness about our next target, the police department.

FALL 2003 - POWER PROJECT OFFER COUCNIL TO LEADERSHIP NASHVILLE (POWER BROKERS OF NASHVILLE )
The Power Project continues to build relationships with people in power to help us with our long-term goals of evening the playing field.

THROUGHOUT 2003 AND ONGOING
Due to growing awareness in the community, the Power Project is invited to speak at several congregations and universities. Creating a Faces of the Homeless panel with a strong focus on justice, NHPP members speak at Vanderbilt, Belmont University, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Glendale Baptist, Brookmeade Congregational Church, and elsewhere. We also participated in Vanderbilt University's Habitat for Humanity Sleep-Out in 2004 and 2005.

JANUARY 2004 - POWER PROJECT MEETS WITH NEW CHIEF OF POLICE SERPAS
The Power Project sets a meeting with the new chief of police, Ronal Serpas, with two goals: (1) to build relationships and credibility, and (2) to raise awareness around the issuesspecifically, criminalization of the poor. The Power Project has collected several citations from people on the streets demonstrating that they are being criminalized for being poor, including, for example, Misdemeanor, subject was seen sleeping on park bench,Misdemeanor, subject was carrying large backpack that blocked pedestrian way,Misdemeanor, subject was seen blowing nose in front of bank.Wanting to build credibility and show willingness to work with the police, the Power Project agrees to focus some of its energy on the Metro Council. Chief Serpas also agrees to allow us to work with the police training academy regarding orientation to homeless issues.

THROUGHOUT 2004 AND ONGOING: MAYOR'S TASKFORCE ON CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS; POWER PROJECT PUTS TWO HOMELESS ON MAYOR???S TASKFORCE
President Bush launches initiative to end chronic homelessness in 10 years and provides funding for cities that make the same commitment. Mayor Bill Purcell of Nashville, co-convenor of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Taskforce, launches his commitment to end chronic homelessness in Nashville in 10 years. The mayor designs a board of over 20 advocates, business leaders, and others but no homeless. The Power Project communicates with local government agencies to alert the Mayor's Office to this mistake. The Mayor's Office, the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, and the Department of Social Services quickly work to identify two homeless individuals for inclusion on the taskforce. Howard Allen and Kevin Barbieux become two members of the Taskforce. The Power Project has successfully encouraged the city to compensate any homeless individual for participation through reimbursement of costs (homeless individuals have to take off work, find transportation, and sometimes a place for the night as a result of the multiple meetings that are required for participation in the commission).

MARCH -JUNE 2004 - PROACTIVE ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE THE LAW
Trying to be proactive, and responding to Chief Serpas request that we expand our work beyond the police department, the Power Project, through the support of ally Karl Meyer and Attorney Kreis White, learn how to research ordinances and understand their meaning. Victor Horton (deceased in 2004) and Howard Allen research all of the ordinances that affect homeless people and bring them to the Power Project leadership team. The team reads every ordinance and decides what should stay, what it would not be possible to remove politically, and what we would like to change. Working with Attorney White, the Power Project drafts a new ordinance that would continue to criminalize violent and drunken acts, but not criminalize people for trying to survive (sleeping, resting, carrying backpacks, etc.). The Power Project is working to secure a council member sponsor for the ordinance when we receive news that the Nashville business community is attempting to push forward an anti-panhandling ordinance.

JUNE-SEPTEMBER 2004 - POWER PROJECT STOPS BUSINESS COMMUNITY FROM GETTING ANTI-PANHANDLING ORDINANCE
The Power Project does not endorse or condemn panhandling, but it does believe that criminalizing the act of panhandling only perpetuates poverty and puts economically oppressed people in the criminal justice system needlessly. The Downtown Partnership, http://www.nashvilledowntown.com/, a coalition of businesses downtown and lobby group for downtown business interest, has spent 2004 investigating mechanisms for removing homeless from downtown. They meet with police supervisors and council members to push an anti-panhandling ordinance.

The Power Project asks the Downtown Partnership to meet to discuss the issue and look for common ground. Several members meet with Partnership Director Tom Turner and another staff person. The meeting is polite and our opinions are expressed, but we leave agreeing that we will continue to disagree. At that point, the Power Project issues a press release to the media and receives tremendous coverage from all newspaper, television, and radio outlets. The Power Project also recruits national alliesthe National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Hunger and Homelessnessto draft statements demonstrating the detriments of such an ordinance. The potential ordinance receives so much negative press, with powerful stories from homeless individuals (some identified by the Power Project), that it is quickly if only temporarily squashed.

The importance of this action spans the ordinance itself. Trends nationwide show that such ordinances are only the first of several steps that business interests take to remove the ugly from downtowns. Specific conservative think tanks have developed strategies that are even included in business urban renewal training manuals on how business interests can get such ordinances passed to make the city more marketable.

SUMMER 2004 - HOMELESS CLEAN UP AT COUNTRY MUSIC FAN FARE

AUGUST 19, 2004 - POWER PROJECT ENDORSES FEDERAL BRING AMERICA HOME ACT

2005 - EDUCATING ALL NASHVILLE POLICE OFFICERS
In late 2004 and early 2005, the Power Project convenes a variety of advocates and outreach workers to look at a comprehensive education program for police officers. Over several months, a multi-pronged proposal is developed. One aspect is a Homelessness 101 workshop for all new police officers. The Power Project is invited to implement its first two-hour workshop to all 53 of the new Nashville Police Cadets in April 2005. The workshop is informative, fun, interactive, and most importantly, presented by those who know homelessness best: homeless people. A follow up meeting is held immediately after the workshop in which Lt. Yates, the officer in charge, agrees to utilize the workshop for all new police cadets. The Power Project would like to also provide training to all officers and not just cadets, but includes that as a future goal of our work.

APRIL 2005 - FIRST HOMELESSNESS 101 WORKSHOP FOR ALL 53 NEW NASHVILLE POLICE CADETS

MAY 11, 2005 - POWER PROJECT ORIENTS NEW DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL SERVICES
The director of the Metro Department of Social Services, Gerry Robinson, is new to Nashville and relatively new to the issues of homelessness. Three Power Project members spend four hours with Director Robinson, DSS Homeless Coordinator Ms. Brenda Ross, and two other DSS staff to orient them to Nashville and build relationships for the future.

MAY 12 - 15, 2005 - POWER PROJECT GOES TO MEMPHIS FOR TENNCARE & POOR PEOPLES MARCH; NHPP JOINS THE POOR PEOPLES ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
As many homeless have no health insurance or sustain themselves off of the statewide health insurance program, TennCare, the Power Project begins to support the mass statewide/nationwide movement to stop cuts to TennCare. We travel to Memphis to participate in the rally. Saturday is a Poor Peoples March, a small march with more Nashvillians than anyone else. The Power Project gets to know Kensington Welfare Right Union founder and leader, Cheri Honkala, and organizer, Cecilia. This is one of our first opportunities to see ourselves as part of an international movement and history fighting for basic rights that should be afforded to all.

MAY  AUGUST 2005 - POWER PROJECT MEMBERS ACTIVE IN TENNCARE FIGHT

June 20, 2005 - John Zirker, Howard Allen, and David Cowboy Luttrell are 3 of 20 individuals to participate in the first day of the TennCare sit-in. Cowboy is willing to be arrested for the cause and all three have been trained in preparation. Instead, the governor concedes his office and the beginning of the longest continuous sit-in in history takes form. John participates in almost every vigil over the next several weeks and Howard spends over a dozen nights in the capitol. Cowboy visits the sit-in and participates in the town halls every chance he gets.

July 13, 2005 - POWER PROJECT HOSTS SECOND-EVER MINI-MARCHAND LEADS 20 HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS TO THE CAPITOL TO TEMPORARILY JOIN THE TENNCARE SIT-IN IN A STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY

JULY 7 & 14, 2005 - FIRST TWO MINI-WORKSHOPS TO ABOUT 20 VANDERBILT POLICE
We condense our two-hour workshop into 30 minutes; while not the amount of time that we want, the interactive style doing role plays and brainstorming with Vanderbilt Police seems effective. A relationship is developed with the coordinating officer, with a proposal to do more and longer workshops in the future.

JULY 2005 - POWER PROJECT PRESSURES MAYOR'S COMMISSION TO NOT TOKENIZE HOMELESS VOICE
The Mayor's Taskforce is becoming a funded Mayor's Commission. Power Project and Mayor's Taskforce member Howard Allen shares how he feels that he is often used as a token to speak for all the homeless and as a result gains support to have three voting members who are homeless or formerly homeless as well as three on the advisory committee. This is drafted as law and is supported by councilmembers such as Councilman Erik Cole, Councilwoman Neighbors, and Vice Mayor Gentry.

AUGUST 12 & 13, 2005 - PENUEL RIDGE CHARGE AT POWER PROJECT GROWS
The Penuel Ridge, founded by Don and Joyce Beisswenger (deceased January 2004), founding and active members of the Living Room and allies to the Power Project, has been a place of reflection for Living Room and Power Project members. The Power Project leadership team makes plans for how it will change and grow in 2006. The founding members recommit themselves to the Power Project and draft plans for the future.

AUGUST 17, 2005 - POWER PROJECT INTERUPTS FIRST MAYOR???S COMMISSION MEETING; VICE-MAYOR (CHAIR) CONCEDES, AND NO DECISIONS ARE MADE UNTIL ALL VOTING MEMBERS HAVE BEEN PROPERLY INVITED AND CAN ATTEND
Six Power Project members (John, Howard, Cowboy, Charles Hill, Emma, and Jerry W), interrupt the first Mayors Commission meeting to read a statement that we consider the Commission null and void until ordinance that guarantees the voice of three people experiencing homelessness are in attendance is observed. Howard Allen reads the statement and all six Power Project members stand and leave in silence. Vice Mayor Gentry, Chair of the Commission, declares the meeting null and reschedules for August 31st, 2005.Nominations for Homeless participants are asked for immediately. Vice Mayor Gentry comes to Power Project meeting and publicly apologizes to over 12 members including the Leadership. Councilman Erik Cole also reaches out to explain.


POWER PROJECT CONTINUES TO MOBILIZE, ORGANIZE AND GROW...

AUGUST 18, 2005  APRIL 2006
Nashville Homeless Power Project will remaining active in the community with workshops, cadet trainings and other speaking engagements spends the majority of its time developing its internal structure that that it may re-emerge with higher capacity to connect with, organize, and mobilize our fellow brothers and sisters in the streets. During this 8 month period the Power Project files with the IRS, develops a workplan and implements a fundraising strategy so that we could hit the streets running on May 1st, 2006.

May 1st, 2006 May 5th, 2006 (WEEK 1)

Currently Homeless and cofounder, Howard Allen, and Matt Leber start their first day on the job as the full-time organizing team for the Power Project. Following the lead of its Leadership Team. Their first goals are to be out on the streets day and night and let people know that we will be where homeless people of Nashville are and that we have POWER in numbers. Eating at Ken & Carols, Holy Name, Downtown Presbyterians Church, the Mission, Edgehill United Methodist, Samaritan, and others; hanging out at the Campus (known as the Service Center by many), Church Street Park, Library, under Jefferson Street Bridge and near the river.Homeless folks learn that the Power Project is here.

May 6th- 12th, 2006 (WEEK 2)

The Power Project meets with Mayors Commission Members, Vice Mayor Gentry, MDHA staff, and other advocates to better understand the Mayors Commission Pilot Projects and start to gauge what is and isn't being done. The Power Project knows that there are at least 17,000 families in Davidson County that either pay more that 50% of their income on housing or dont have housing and that the need for housing now is a life or death issue for many if more housing is not available immediately. At the same time, it is just their second week and it is clear that the Mayors Commission has identified good model projects- Housing First, Jobs First, and SSI Outreach as a beginning and need time to implement this project on a small group of individuals (about 24) and give the pilot time before throwing a lot of money at housing.The need for housing is now but if we want the 800,000 pilots to turn into a multi-million dollar annual investment for thousands of new units we need let the political well and private interest develop over time.The Power Project is willing to work together with the Mayor, Councilmembers, Advocates and Business to give the process a try and they commit to remain vigilant.

Meanwhile, there are 1,300 Police Officers and the Chief has ask the Mayor for another 5.5 Million for an anti-gang force to respond to neighborhood concerns while at the same time there are only 3.25 Homeless Outreach workers and the primary outreach work, Will Connelly at MDHA left in April to launch the Balitmore Modeled SSI Outreach Program.Outreach workers facilitate getting homeless people in need to the housing and services they need and save the city money (amount being researched).?? It could be argued that hundreds of outreach workers would revolutionize peoples lives in Nashville, meanwhile, when will MDHA or another city entity even hire another outreach worker to replace Will Connelly.The other 2 outreach workers are designated to homeless with Mental Health issues only. They are overwhelmed but what about all the other homeless.

May 15th, 2006- Present
The Power Project is rapidly expanding with homeless individuals of all backgrounds wearing the Nashville Homeless Power Project button with pride. The Power Project leadership team has several formal and informal meetings with homeless folks each week as a mechanism to learn what is happening and to inform folks of our plans.