Remarks to Greeneville Mayor Doty and Council
March 17, 2026
CANUP – the Coalition Addressing the Needs of Unhoused People of Greene County (or Canopy as we call it) – just celebrated its third birthday last month. We now have a regular daily feeding program that engages the homeless allowing us to know who they are, what their circumstances have been and what issues block access to housing. We build relationships that keep us informed of their readiness to enter recovery, commit to mental health treatment and counseling, and eliminate barriers between them and successful housing.
We are delivering on the ‘Coalition’ part of our name. We ask that you join us by agreeing that homelessness is a problem in Greeneville and Greene County. We seek your active participation to improve the current plight of those who are unhoused. Greenevillians are challenged to see the homeless on street corners and intersections to the four-lane as anything other than annoying panhandlers. Join us as we work to change our community’s attitude from those who are ‘bedeviled’ to those who are ‘beloved.’
Our approach to the clients who ask us for help is information first. This determines what happens next. First, for those “situationally” homeless we have found ways to get them rapid rehousing or a short term boost by using prevention strategies. These are the most straight forward clients to assist.
The “episodically” homeless, on the other hand, have more serious issues around resources they do not have, such as housing support with vouchers and available, affordable rental units. We will need your help here with planned development, perhaps rezoning for apartment construction, better social support services, and contributing to rental assistance programs like Fairview housing.
Thirdly, the hardest group of our displaced neighbors is the chronically unhoused. Here we see the interacting effects of disabling conditions (such as psychiatric, substance, medical, partner abuse, or comorbidities) which require transitional housing and often permanent supportive housing (PSH).
Successful mental health intervention can take weeks and inpatient alcohol or substance recovery is often 30 days; for these clients re-entering society needs wrap around services in protected housing with peer recovery support personnel. (Your support documents cover this in detail.) Transitional housing villages (TVH) (communities) will need your support for zoning exemptions once coalition partners come together with sound designs. Such trauma informed, peer supported programs ‘train up’ clients with the necessary social skills for real world living in 12-18 months when they’re ready for graduation. The same would apply to those completing sentences in jail. Let’s work together to save them from falling back to old patterns and habits where problems fester and old wounds reopen.
We would also ask for favorable consideration of designated “safe outdoor spaces” where adults without houses could park and sleep in their cars at night without being rousted; be given video monitoring for security, and access to bathrooms/toilets with warm water.
Help us to work with law enforcement to prevent release of inmates at odd hours without a designated place to go. This could be a partnership with a law enforcement officer (starting with one half FTE) who coordinates with CANUP several days or weeks before release to identify those who would be unhoused when they get out on the street.
We ask for your civic leadership to boost participation in the winter warming shelter. Provision of shelter on the bitterest of nights in winter is a collective task. Currently, one church (Asbury UMC) is carrying that load and may well continue that for a time. One nonprofit is administering this mission (C.A.R.E.) and they will continue no doubt. But there are limits to the volunteers that have stepped up to cover 70 nights this winter season. CANUP has worked alongside CARE to seek out and schedule workers for night shifts. Your support here could encourage others to join in and lighten the load and demonstrate compassion to our neighbors. 140 men and women have stood the watch this winter so that the vulnerable could sleep in a warm cot and wake up to a warm cup of coffee.
These are real tangible things we can work on together. It starts with the understanding that housing is a fundamental human right. In the words of Homeboy Industries founder Gregory Boyle, we are all unshakably good; no one seeks out mental illness, childhood trauma, or a life of gangs, violence, or drug addiction. Some of us are shaped by circumstances that we do not choose but mold us nonetheless. We must engage together as partners in a bigger Coalition that shows us the way to beloved community. (The slide deck and prepared comments serve as support to our mission to pave the way to end homelessness through housing.)
Michael Hartsell, MD, Chair CANUP Board
