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Learn More About Targeted Universalism

BY JUDITH TACKETT

When the most recent federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness was released late last year (view it at https://www.usich. gov/fsp), it announced that the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) “will work with a broad range of stakeholders to adopt a ‘targeted universalism’ framework that promotes a universal reduction goal with targeted and tailored solutions based on the structures, cultures, and geographies of certain groups to help them overcome unique barriers.”

The plan went on to say that “USICH recognizes that tailored solutions are needed for specific populations and geographic areas and that individuals and families experiencing multiple barriers often require special consideration and resources.”

So what does targeted universalism mean and why does it matter for us here in Nashville?

Berkeley University identified targeted universalism as, “the pursuit of universal goals with targeted or tailored measures, programs, or interventions.” In layman’s terms and applied to homelessness, I understand it as creating overall (universal) goals to prevent and end homelessness, but provide services that work for people based on their actual needs depending on how old they are, what race they are, whether they have any conditions and where they currently sleep.

Let’s take a look at Nashville’s homelessness By Name Lists (BNLs) for 2022. To create a BNL, nonprofit agencies serving people experiencing homelessness enter a person’s data into a database. In Nashville, the community uses the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to collect that information.

The Metro Homeless Impact Division has staff that manage the BNLs for the community. The BNL is focused on subpopulations, which include Individuals, Youth and Young Adults (18-24 years of age), Families with children, Veterans, and people fleeing Domestic Violence. These are the subpopulations we currently look at when it comes to homelessness in Nashville.

Before you study the data on this page, please be advised of the following. The quality of the data depends largely on the nonprofit providers who enter the data in a complete and timely manner. With that, we know that the Families, Veterans and Domestic Violence BNLs likely have the highest quality as of now. The individual BNL is constantly added to as more providers identify more people who have been experiencing homelessness but were not previously entered into the database. All people must have provided consent to be entered onto the BNLs.

Currently, the BNLs mainly focus on people who meet the literal homelessness definition, which is the narrowest definition of homelessness and includes people sleeping in shelters, on the streets or in encampments, in cars, and in other places not meant for human habitation. Should the community decide to expand that definition, BNLs may increase again.

Under a targeted universalism framework, our community would adopt strategies that focus on all subpopulations. Frankly, we likely would follow the national strategic plan and expand our subpopulations. In addition, we would look at the different geographic areas in Nashville and target our interventions according to the specific needs of each subpopulation and where people are.

Under such an approach, we potentially could look at people’s age groups: Pre-schoolers; school-aged kids; young adults (18-24); middle aged families with young kids; older adults.

We also could identify the following subgroups: Veterans; people fleeing from Domestic Violence; people identifying as LGBTQI+; people with a substance use disorder; people with mental health conditions; people with disabilities; with HIV, and so on.

Furthermore, we could include a racial equity approach to ensure that our policies and interventions reach all people regardless of their race and ethnicity.

And finally, we could look where people live in Davidson County and divide our interventions based on urban, suburban settings, and even identify specific remote areas.

The universal goals would be the same and focus on preventing and ending homelessness for everyone. The targeted approaches would align interventions based on the needs of each subpopulation.

Let’s go back to the question about why this actually matters for us here in Nashville.

Targeted universalism does not prioritize one subpopulation or one geographic location over another. Yet, that’s exactly what the local government currently is doing. Metro has actually changed our coordinated entry policy to meet political goals that moved us further away from an equity approach. In other words, if you are living in the right encampment at the right time, you will be moved into transitional living spaces following a certain schedule.

What this will do is that once word gets out, politicians (including the state) will create so-called partnerships with Metro to ensure that they have a say in which encampments are prioritized. Furthermore, property owners, including the state, will threaten to close encampments at certain times demanding that Metro provide resources to house the people in those encampments. We already see this happening.

Metro has scheduled the next encampment enclosure for March. I will not be talking about the location because we don’t need to add to the increase in people moving there prior to the closing of the encampment. (Yes, that’s already happening because people want to receive services and access housing and will move to the locations that are prioritized. Metro is setting timelines and assessing people by a certain date. The people who were assessed by that timeline will then be prioritized over the new arrivals.) One other thing that will happen, and has already started, is that neighborhoods will complain because the encampments in their areas are not slated for closure.

And all of this is happening while Metro’s promised $9-million contracts for support services are still not in place, even though the Mayor’s Office and the Metro Homeless Impact Division/Metro Social Services submitted in writing a timeline to the Metro Council in October. Based on that timeline those support services should have been already in place prior to any encampment closures. As a consequence, Metro solesourced an additional $237,000 in funding for the out-of-state consultant that is master-minding this entire approach based on the Mayor’s Office directives. That consulting contract has ballooned to a total of $737,000 for a two-year period, but we really have nothing new to show for except for $50 million investment of federal one-time funds based on implementing local programs we already had in place. This is Nashville’s one shot to demonstrate what needs to be done to reduce homelessness steadily for all subpopulations. Focusing on only one particular group over others will seed hostility and resentment across providers, government agencies, businesses and neighborhoods.

That’s why a targeted universalism framework is worth looking into, and I recommend the next mayor do just that and move toward the implementation of a Housing First approach, which is actually still not happening now even after Mayor John Cooper’s endorsement of Housing First last year.

Unless we take a more holistic approach and stop trying to implement quick fixes that are short-sighted and won’t last, our BNLs will continue to rise.