Justice Knox co-hosts Mayors’ Leadership Summit on Housing & Homelessness

Justice Knox worked with both Mayors, their staff, and Erin Read, the director of the new joint office of housing stability to bring more than 100 community leaders together in March 2024 to build momentum to solve the problem of homelessness in our community. The summit was successful beyond what we imagined. Our keynote speaker, Julia Orlando of Bergen County, NJ laid out the steps her community took to reach functional zero for chronic and veteran homelessness. Functional zero means that more people are moving into permanent housing than are becoming homeless in a community. The summit attendees included a great mix of elected officials, leaders of homeless service agencies, Justice Knox leaders, leaders of city and county agencies like the parks department and the public library, business leaders and even representatives from Visit Knox, the local agency that promotes tourism. In addition there were other wonderful speakers, including a young person who had had lived experience of homelessness. Both of our Mayors— Mayor Kincannon and Mayor Jacobs— stayed for the entire 4 hour summit and were very engaged throughout. Justice Knox leaders met with both Mayors and Ms. Read post summit to debrief the event and discuss potential action steps.