News Briefs

COVID-19 Assessment Centers adjust hours for winter

The Davidson County COVID-19 Community Assessment Centers operated by Meharry Medical College will adjust hours of operations to accommodate colder weather through the Winter months.

All the COVID-19 Community Assessment Centers will operate from 10:00 a.m.3:00 p.m. Monday-Friday beginning on Jan. 19, 2021. The assessment centers will also institute a Cold Weather Community Assessment Center Plan for days when opening all three assessment centers is not possible because of frigid temperatures.

Testing will be available at the Nissan Stadium site on these days while the Former Kmart location and Meharry Medical College location are closed. Testing is free to the public at all community assessment centers operated by Meharry Medical College.

The COVID 19 Hotline number is (615)862-7777. The hotline operates seven days a week from 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.

The Community Assessment Centers are located at:

• Nissan Stadium

Lot “N” 1 Titans Way

Nashville, TN 37213

• Meharry Medical 918 21st Ave North

Nashville, TN 37208 NEWS BRIEFS

• Former Kmart 2491 Murfreesboro Pike

Nashville, TN 37217

Davidson County ranks among worst for child well being

Davidson County ranks 92nd among Tennessee counties in child well being, according to a report from the state.

“Some of the county’s strongest rankings are a high median household income and a relatively low rate of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect,” the report says.

The county’s biggest challenges are a below-average high school graduation rate and an above-average rate of school suspensions. An additional strength is a below-average rate of substantiated cases of abuse or neglect. Additional opportunities for improvement include high housing costs and a high percentage of children without health insurance.

Nashville launches task force on affordable housing

Mayor John Cooper today announced on Jan. 12 that the city would be creating a task force of 21 housing experts to help create more affordable housing in the city.

The group’s first meeting is on Jan. 21 and their work will inform the 2022 fiscal year budget plan that Mayor John Cooper will make later this year to Metro Council.

“Nashville’s housing needs are urgent,” Cooper said in a release. “By working together and listening to one another, we can find solutions that work best for Nashville’s neighborhoods.”

Cooper and the task force, the Metro Planning Department, the Metro Development and Housing Authority and other city agencies will support the task force as they focus on policy, access, financing and land use.

Recordings of all task force meetings will be posted to nashville.gov.

“This task force represents an important step toward meeting Nashville’s pressing housing needs,” Metro Council Member Burkley Allen said. Allen and Metro Council Member Zulfat Suara will serve on the task force.

“I look forward to working with my colleague, Council Member Suara, and with the other members of this task force to make recommendations to Mayor Cooper and the Metro Council,” Allen said.

Task force members will also work with residents who have lived experiences to share about what it’s like to need, seek and find affordable housing in Nashville.

“Nashvillians need help,” Kay Bowers, an MDHA board member, said. Bowers will serve on the task force. “I’m pleased to be part of a diverse group with the skills, knowledge, and, most of all, commitment to find real solutions to our urgent housing affordability problems.”

Mick Nelson, founder and CEO of Nelson Community Partners, and Edward Henley, III, principal and project executive at Pillars Development, LLC, will co-chair the task force.

“Nashville’s housing needs are critical. Mayor Cooper has assembled a group with the experience and the expertise to identify meaningful solutions to those challenges,” Henley said. “I am eager to get to work and excited by the impact we will make.”

Tennessee General Assembly passes Medicaid block grant

In its first week convening for the 112th session of the Tennessee General Assembly, legislators passed a controversial Medicaid block grant proposal.

The opening week of the assembly often only includes organizational steps, but the legislature was attempting to push the legislation through before Jan. 20 when Joe Biden took office as the 46th president of the United States. The block grant gives Tennessee a great deal of flexibility with funds used for health care, which some say means worse outcomes for people in poverty.

The Trump administration approved the deal in early January and Gov. Bill Lee has pushed to get the proposal through — House Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Republican from Portland, Tenn., says President-elect Joe Biden would not be able to reverse the measure.

New House Finance Chair Patsy Hazlewood told the Nashville Post that, “the speed with which the legislature was considering the plan was ‘rather extraordinary.’”