Statements

Mission

Open Table Nashville is a non-profit community that disrupts cycles of poverty, journeys with the marginalized and provides education about issues of homelessness.
Core Values
Compassion: We meet people where they are with non-judgmental compassion.
Dignity: We respect the dignity of all people.
Integrity: We work with integrity by aligning our values and actions and being transparent and accountable to one another and our community.
Community: We strive to create a more welcoming and just community by journeying alongside people who have been forgotten or excluded.
Solidarity: We take a stand on the side of people experiencing homelessness and work for justice by fostering personal and systemic transformation.

Background

In the late summer of 2008, OTN's founders were a ragtag team of homeless outreach workers and volunteers who were introduced to Tent City, Nashville's largest homeless encampment that was located on the banks of the Cumberland River. Over time, we became friends with the residents, advocated with them for their rights, received hospitality from them, officiated at their weddings and funerals, and realized that a majority of the residents couldn't stay at traditional shelters because they were couples, pet owners, working non-traditional hours, or struggling with severe mental health issues. We helped dozens of Tent City residents move into permanent housing, but as these residents left their tents, others moved in who were trying to survive the country's Great Recession. About 140 people and over a dozen cats and dogs called Tent City home by the spring of 2010. And then came the great Nashville flood. After record rainfalls, the Cumberland River and many of its tributaries flooded. Tent City and large swaths of Nashville were completely engulfed. As the waters rose, we evacuated the residents and their pets to the Red Cross Shelter at Lipscomb University and made a promise that would change our lives: we promised that we would not abandon them. When the waters receded and the Red Cross Shelter closed, city officials condemned Tent City and failed to provide adequate solutions for the majority of the displaced residents - many of whom would be sent to the streets again. Because we had promised the residents that we would stand beside them, we began organizing volunteers, collecting donations, and asking the city, churches, and landowners for land on which we could set-up a temporary encampment. Lee Beaman, owner of Beaman Toyota, offered us a 2-acre parcel of unoccupied land in Antioch, and we moved about 40 of the displaced residents there. After spending 40 days on Beaman's land, the city closed the camp. Hobson United Methodist Church in East Nashville offered to rent us their parsonage and we helped a number of displaced residents move there. Today, we are one of the lowest barrier service providers in Nashville.. To us, an "open table" means a place where everyone is welcome, where the table is never too full and there's always an open seat. We're not here just to make sure our friends on the streets get crumbs from the table. That is no more than charity. We're here to make sure our friends have a place at the table, and that is about justice.

Impact

Since our inception, OTN has moved over 800 individuals into permanent housing. In the last few years we have created a formalized advocacy program that has taken our local organization to the national stage as we continue to push for greater investments in affordable housing and end the criminalization of homelessness. In 2023, we received a prestigious investment from The National Alliance to End Homelessness. Notable impacts from 2023 include:
-43 individuals moved into permanent housing
-Continued supportive services to 29 individuals in housing
-Over 2,000 camping supplies distributed
-responded to 7,248 outreach calls
-Attended 36 public meetings/legislative sessions/public actions
-Hosted our first Day on the Hill for Housing and Homelessness
-1,318 individuals received education through our training sessions

Needs

Facing the ongoing effects of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofit organizations like ours have experienced a myriad of fundraising challenges. As a small organization, we are deeply impacted by the effects of these challenges. In response to the decrease in giving from multiple foundation and grant sources, we made the very difficult decision in July 2023 to reduce the size of our staff. We have eliminated two full-time positions and three positions will be reduced to part-time moving forward. That means currently, OTN has 3 full time staff members and 4 part time staff members. We did not make this decision lightly and have spent months exploring the best way forward. We are confident we are making a sound fiscal decision so that Open Table Nashville can sustainably continue living out our mission to provide housing, healing, and hope to those experiencing homelessness in Nashville. This is a particularly tough season in the life cycle of our organization, but Open Table Nashville is not going anywhere. Our biggest needs are financial investments in the ongoing operations of our organization. Small non profits need salary support to raise wages and offer benefits. This is a needed shift in grant making and OTN is excited to be a part of those conversations.

CEO Statement

I have known Open Table Nashville since I was 19 years old. In a full circle moment, an organization that I once volunteered for as a college student, is now the organization I have the distinct honoring of leading. Open Table Nashville is special. Distinctly relational, always willing to speak truth to power, and continually standing on the side of those experiencing homelessness, OTN is guided by our core values of solidarity, dignity, compassion, solidarity and integrity. We are unique because we are one of the few service providers in Nashville that pairs individual direct service work alongside of systemic advocacy work. Our advocacy work was born out of our outreach work and they continue to go hand in hand to this day. In order to disrupt cycles of poverty and homelessness, Open Table Nashville believes we must fight unjust policies and work toward systemic change. This is what sets OTN a part. Yes, we are meeting people's basic needs and we help people who are drowning in the waters of poverty and despair, but we don't stop there. We also go upstream to see why so many people are in those waters in the first place. For the last 14 years, our organization has bore witness to systems that leave our friends on the streets feeling invisible and dehumanized. We know that our systems can and should be better and we remain committed to disrupting the harmful cycles that exist because we believe a more equitable world is possible. The team at Open Table Nashville remains one of my favorite things about leading this incredible organization. They are dedicated, tenacious and deeply passionate about supporting our friends in their path to housing. We are a small but mighty team and believe that housing is a human right. Everyone deserves a seat at the table.

Board Chair Statement

I am enormously proud to serve as the chair of the board of directors for Open Table Nashville. I am passionate about housing justice and the critical work Open Table does in this space, because as a public defender, I have seen firsthand the devastating consequences that inaccesible housing has on the wellbeing of our neighbors. I am proud to work alongside an organization filled with incredible and dedicated staff, who celebrate the humanity of our unhoused friends every day and fight to ensure that others may see the same. Because of organizations like Open Table Nashville, I am able to dream of a future in my lifetime where housing is a human right, and where all may enjoy the dignity and peace of a stable and safe place to call home.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Human Services  - Homeless Services/Centers
Secondary Category:	Housing, Shelter  - Housing Support
Tertiary Category:	Public & Societal Benefit  - Alliances & Advocacy

Areas Served

Open Table Nashville serves unhoused and unstably housed people in Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Open Table Nashville also provides trainings, education, and advocacy information to community groups in several Middle Tennessee counties, including Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, and Sumner County.

TN - Davidson