NEWS

Brookmeade Park homeless encampment draws Metro attention, potential surveillance

BY JUSTIN WAGNER

As Brookmeade Park’s homeless encampment faces growing scrutiny, nearby Nashvillians and activists express concern for the camp residents’ safety.

Lisa Wysocky, founder of local homeless outreach group Colby’s Army, assists the residents of the Brookmeade camp weekly by offering food, living supplies and guidance toward housing.

“Every Tuesday we load our horse trailer full of supplies — and these supplies are all donated by members of the community — and we go out,” Wysocky said. “And then we also get to know people on an individual basis, and I've known some people out there for 10 years or more. And you know, we try to figure out, ‘how can we best help you?’”

Wysocky said that Metro worked closely with Colby’s Army to enact solutions for housing and distribution of supplies where possible — but Metro’s current relationship with the Brookmeade camp involves more than occasional outreach assistance.

On Nov. 17, Metro’s Council Budget and Finance Committee voted to defer a bill which would fund security cameras to be placed in parks with homeless encampments — including Brookmeade — for the second time this month.

The bill would also fund the “renovation and repair” of Brookmeade Park, involving construction vehicles to remove debris.

Wysocky said the bill could be helpful in monitoring flow of drugs in and out of the camp if committed to in a limited capacity, but that a glut of cameras would be “invasive.”

Following the bill’s first delay, though, Mayor John Cooper invited Metro council members to visit the Brookmeade encampment, as well as Wharf Park and the park adjacent to Casa Azafran — a move which placed the camp in the public eye via multiple local news stories and social media controversy.

Andrea Fanta, Cooper’s press secretary, said the move was intended to provide council members with perspective on the issues of homelessness and to illustrate why the cameras might be helpful.

“These cameras never were, and are still not, intended to monitor or target any individuals,” Fanta said. “Instead, Metro Parks has requested funding for cameras to protect unhoused neighbors by detecting and deterring possible criminal activity, which victimizes unhoused people who are already vulnerable.”

“The visits Council members made to these three parks hopefully helped Council understand both the city’s homelessness needs and also the intent for and use of cameras.”

And having seen the Brookmeade camp grow and grow over the last decade, now at 57 people, Wysocky explained that conditions can grow harsher when a community is concentrated so intensely.

“When we first started at Brookmeade, maybe in 2010, there were 10 or 12 folks there, and a few of those folks are still there today. And there was enough room, I think, to support that,” she said. “Now we’ve got so many people that it’s very crowded, certainly with the water construction project they’ve got going on.”

That construction, which is expected to resolve in the fall of next year, according to Clean Water Nashville’s website, has pushed an already overpopulated community into closer quarters, Wysocky said.

“Number one, nobody needs to be living in homelessness … but I think in Brookmeade, it has gotten problematic because there’s too many people there. And we do have much more of an issue there with drugs and alcohol than we used to.”

Those issues of crowding and illegal activity have garnered attention from activists and Metro, but it also presents danger for other unhoused people in the area.

Lonny Jones, who has experienced homelessness for years but arrived in Tennessee only months ago, said the risks of having belongings stolen or being assaulted exacerbate each other in situations like the one around Brookmeade — and that survival can be difficult in a bloated, vulnerable community.

“If you’re on the streets, unfortunately, a lot of it’s not hunky dory,” Jones said. “You survive the best way you can, you know? I found out [the Brookmeade camp] wasn’t a good place to be.”

Despite the seeming advantages of sticking together, Jones said it would be safer, at least for him, to go it alone.

Wysocky said the visits may have been well-intentioned, but that the issues impacting these communities need to be approached respectfully and persistently.

“One thing we have to remember is that if somebody is living in Brookmeade or any other place that they're living in a tent, we have to be respectful of the fact that that is their home,” she said.

“I don't want people to show up at my home unannounced and expect me to drop everything and talk to them. I don't think the council members or anybody else would appreciate that either.”

Despite these concerns and Metro’s activity in the area, though, Wysocky said the issues would likely persist until there was housing affordable enough for low-income residents to stay in.

“The problem is, Metro has no affordable housing, so we have new people coming in all the time. There's no place for them to go.”