Statements

Mission

The mission of the Williamson County Homeless Alliance is to develop and maintain a permanent transitional sanctuary that meets the needs of people experiencing homelessness in Franklin/Williamson County Tennessee by partnering with local government, non-profits, businesses, individuals, and churches.

Background

From the beginning, the Williamson County Homeless Alliance had the vision to create a permanent shelter that ministers to the whole person, providing a place of rest, recovery, and holistic assistance.

The Williamson County Homeless Alliance (WCHA) comes out of a ministry of Franklin Community Church (FCC) and Franklin Community Development (FCD).

In 2013 Pastor Kevin Riggs, Pastor of Franklin Community Church developed a community center on Natchez Street near downtown Franklin. On one of his first days at the community center, Pastor Kevin noticed a car parked in an empty lot across the street. He noticed there were always two people in the car and the car was always there, from early morning to late night. Finally, Pastor Kevin walked to the car and introduced himself to the couple inside. Quickly, he realized the couple lived in the car! Up until that time, Pastor Kevin did not know there were people experiencing homelessness in his beautiful town.

In 2014, the Natchez Community Center was open for people experiencing homelessness to sleep. Over the following years, the church has operated an emergency shelter at the community center, a warehouse, and at a "social club" in the area. In the fall of 2017, the church opened a group home for men who had experienced homelessness. That group home, Franklin Community House, is still in operation.

Since the early days, at least once a year, a newspaper or network news, would do a story about Pastor Kevin and the homeless situation in Franklin, TN. In January of 2019, The Tennessean did a story that finally caught people's attention. Here is a link to that story, https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/williamson/2019/01/29/homeless-shelters-franklin-tn-williamson-county/2481880002/. This article led to several phone calls and meetings of various city leader. By the end of February 2019, an initial board was formed, a community meeting was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and the Williamson County Homeless Alliance was formed.

WCHA became an official 501(c)3 in 2020.

WCHA partners with her parent organization, Franklin Community Development (FCD), to provide emergency housing in churches and hotels. In 2020, during the six weeks of "shelter-in-place" orders, WCHA and FCD provided dozens of people with shelter at a local hotel. By the end of 2020, WCHA and FCD provided over 1,500 nights of emergency shelter.

Today, WCHA continues to help those experiencing homelessness through various programs.

Impact

WCHA is impacting lives. In 2021, through generous donors and partners:

• 291 total nights of shelter provided (80% of possible nights in 2021)
• Shelter was provided 8 out of 10 nights all year long)
• A total of 1,437 beds provided.
• An average of 5 people per night. (200+ individual people)
• December had the highest average with 11 people per night
• January was the lowest month with only 8 people housed all month: 6 men and 2 women. The reason January was so low was because we were out of funding.

In the past two years of serving those experiencing homelessness (2020 and 2021):
1,000 meals have been served to the homeless.
2,000 beds have been provided.
67 families transitioned from transitional housing to permanent housing.
300 families have been served with resources and support.

Needs

The most basic level of need is an emergency shelter; a safe place to stay where one can receive love, a meal, a shower, and a comfortable bed. All individuals will be welcomed with open arms. We assist people in the emergency shelter in taking next steps if they so choose.

The second level of need is supportive services. This is a person who reaches out and asks for help beyond a place to sleep. This person will be assigned a case worker who will start the process of identifying what the person's needs are and how to best address those needs. We have case managers who work with families.

The next level of need is transitional housing. At this point, the person will move into a "dormitory/pod" style part of the shelter, or into a partnering group home. Transitional housing is based on gender and family dynamics.

The fourth level of need is permanent housing. For some people, this will include more supportive housing, or subsidized housing. For others, it would be the ability to support their own housing options.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Human Services  - Homeless Services/Centers
Secondary Category:	Religion- Related  - Christianity
Tertiary Category:	-

Areas Served

TN - Williamson