Q&A

April Calvin discusses new role at MHID, newly approved $50 homelessness response initiative

BY JUSTIN WAGNER

The Metro Homeless Impact Division is currently undergoing reorganization as Nashville moves toward a standalone Office of Homeless Services, but remains at work developing strategies to implement Mayor John Cooper’s $50 million homelessness response plan — which Metro council approved Oct. 5.

April Calvin recently took over as interim director of MHID following Jay Servais’ recent departure from the position. Previously assistant director at the department, Calvin boasts over two decades of experience in social work at the Salvation Army. She hopes to utilize that experience, she said, as she works to address homelessness in the city and oversees the coming changes for her department.

Calvin sat down with The Contributor and discussed her new role at MHID during a hectic week spent reorganizing and planning for the future.

How have you found the transition to interim director?

I’ll say it has been going well, you know, I’ve been well prepared for the job with 26 years of experience in this [area]. It’s a fulltime job that could probably be three fulltime jobs. I know that they’re interviewing for the director. We’re just restructuring the department, we want to make sure we have enough staff on the leadership level.

For this department, there was a bill for it to be its own department — that doesn’t just happen because a piece of paper was signed, right? There’s a lot of work that goes into the backend of getting that together.

What’s your No. 1 priority now that you’ve transitioned to this role?

Before two days ago [when Metro Council passed the ARP funds bill], the No. 1 priority was to solidify the $50 million as a short-term goal, and working on implementation, contracts, grant agreements for that body of work, kind of just moving a lot of parts at once. We have a strategic plan that our Homelessness Planning Council is working on. We just want to make sure that all the bodies of work are aligned so it’s a seamless system.

So, it’s a lot of working out logistics at this stage.

The logistics of the funding, the logistics of the strategic plan, the logistics of an outdoor encampment strategy — along with the help of our consultant, HUD TA. They’ve been really great, HUD TA, that’s ready to hit the ground running as soon as the funds are deployed.

With regard to those plans and strategies, how do you see the department moving forward on encampments?

The Shelter Committee has helped, we’ve all helped to draft an outdoor housing strategy and that was returned to MHID. I was able to share that with other Metro departments that would be heavily involved in that venture, which would be Metro Nashville

Police, Metro health, Metro parks … just sharing that with several Metro departments so that they can speak to it, help draft what their tasks and duties would be in such a plan, and they’ll send that back to us. And we just did that last week. We’ll be putting that all together so that we have a solid plan on what the strategy is and what everyone’s tasks, duties and objectives are.

Do you see any immediate changes coming to the department?

There was a bill that was passed recently for this department to become its own standalone department. The executive director Renee’ Pratt at Metro Social Services is wanting to identify a timeline and a process, maybe by July 1, having this office fully operating independently. But that comes along with a lot of building the infrastructure of a standalone department.

And then there’s the search for a director. I’m not sure of a timeline on that just because I have applied for the position. So I’m a little bit removed from the timeline on that search.

What are the city’s biggest obstacles right now when it comes to affordable housing and getting people into them?

Having enough affordable housing and agencies being at max capacity as far as staffing is concerned. The problem’s twofold. There’s having enough affordable housing available — and so, hopefully funds like the $50 million initiative, obviously not all $50 million dollars is dedicated to affordable housing, but $25 million of that is. So bringing on some units pretty quickly, within the next six to 18 months. Then helping agencies reach max capacity as far as staffing.

You have experience in the city, at the Salvation Army — how has that informed the work so far?

I have a lot of experience with all of the nonprofits here in Nashville throughout my 26 years of working in this industry. And within the last year, working here at MHID. I’ve been able to see it on the Metro level, much more macro, and actually being one of those agencies with boots on the ground, as well. I definitely draw from all of those experiences and then create new and even much more exciting relationships with the funding resources we have on hand and my level of leadership.

Is there anything else you’d like people to get on people’s minds as Metro moves forward?

This is just an exciting time. I really want to celebrate, I may sound super tired — I am, right? — but, you know, Tuesday was a long day and Wednesday was not a break, right? I didn’t schedule to be up until 2 in the morning, and then on Wednesday we had major things going on. I may sound super tired, but it’s OK, because it’s really, really some great things that are going on. I think our community partners have collaborated like no other time in the past, and this is super exciting work.

I think this is a time like no other where Metro council heard the need and the cry of community partners, those that are experiencing outdoor homelessness, and it’s great when we are aligning our programs, strategies, and funding streams with what we see on a national level as well.

This was the first time ever that the federal HUD released a special notice of funding opportunity for the unsheltered, people living outdoors. We’re finalizing that scope of work as well, and that application as well. That’s exactly how you help to reduce homelessness. By aligning strategies and having enough resources to meet the need.