Panel tells Committee on Contributions that homelessness and housing instability are widespread; agencies point to data and coordination

At a Committee on Contributions meeting, panelists from United Way, the Murfreesboro Police Department, Murfreesboro City Schools and the city’s Recreation Services department presented local data and described coordinated responses to homelessness and housing instability in Murfreesboro and Rutherford County. Committee members were told the panel’s findings as the committee prepares to receive nonprofit funding applications.

Kristen Swan of United Way opened with an overview of ALICE — “ALICE stands for asset limited income constrained and employed,” she said — and told the committee that people who earn above the federal poverty line but below a local cost-of-living threshold face severe instability. “In Rutherford County, the folks below the ALICE threshold … represent 43 percent of those living in Rutherford County,” Swan said, and she reported that the city of Murfreesboro’s ALICE rate is higher, with one downtown ZIP code at 57 percent.

The data put several other numbers before committee members. Swan said the community estimates about 12,000 eviction filings in Rutherford County each year based on civil-court activity; United Way’s 2-1-1 helpline recorded more than 3,500 inquiries from the Rutherford County School District and 2,086 from the Murfreesboro City School District in the last fiscal year. She said 51 percent of 2-1-1 calls in the Murfreesboro City School District year were about housing and shelter and that 53 percent of housing requests were for rent assistance.

United Way also summarized case-management and service-tracking data. Swan said CharityTracker logged roughly $1,900,000 in assistance across about 87,559 recorded assistance events last fiscal year, with 39 percent of recorded assistance for food and 18 percent for household items. She described limitations in those datasets — CharityTracker participation is voluntary for agencies — and contrasted those totals with HUD-centered reporting systems: United Way reported the annual Point-In-Time (PIT) count recorded 349 people meeting HUD’s literal-homelessness definition in the most recent January count (compared with 367 in 2024). United Way also reviewed HMIS (Homeless Management Information System) enrollments and noted about 908 enrollments as of September, with a simple projection to roughly 1,300 people served through HMIS in 2025 if current rates held.

Panelists emphasized differences in definitions used by schools and HUD. Swan explained that McKinney-Vento protections cover children “without stable housing” — including couch-surfing, motels and doubled-up households — and so school-based counts are larger than HUD’s PIT totals. United Way cited a 2024 year-end McKinney-Vento count of 2,243 children in Rutherford County and said the county’s year-to-date McKinney-Vento figure was about 900; she also said Murfreesboro City reported McKinney-Vento counts in the low hundreds (figures cited as current to roughly a month earlier).

Police and outreach staff described operational responses. Murfreesboro Police Department officers said the department’s Homeless Outreach Support Team (HOST) and companion units conduct frequent contacts and campsite removals: in one reporting quarter (July 1–Sept. 30), the unit reported 896 contacts with unsheltered individuals, 34 camps cleared and 27 newly identified camps. The city’s private-property process includes outreach to property owners and a notice procedure; police said private-property encampments are subject to a 72-hour notice before citations for trespass may be issued.

The panel credited operational changes at Journey Home with reducing service-related calls into police. Panelists said Journey Home’s reorganization requires people who seek services there to choose a service pathway — such as housing placement or behavioral health — and to participate in that pathway; panelists said the organization is prioritizing local residents and that the new approach has reduced call volume and informal “hangout” activity reported at the facility.

On behavioral-health response, speakers described an embedded co-responder model. Volunteers Behavioral Health staff are embedded with police through a HOST-team arrangement; panelists said three licensed co-responders ride with officers and can arrange safety plans or crisis-stabilization admissions. The panel reported co-responder activity for a recent quarter: 73 encounters, 22 safety plans completed, 21 formal committals under the cited local forms and 12 admissions to the crisis stabilization unit.

School leaders and other panelists described school-district programs and front-line service gaps. Murfreesboro City Schools said it provides transportation to a child’s school of origin under McKinney-Vento rules, operates universal school meals under a community eligibility program and runs weekend backpack programs that feed students outside school hours. District staff and police highlighted limits: they said long waits for inpatient psychiatric beds and declines in some federal funds are constraining the community’s ability to place and treat people who need longer-term clinical care. Panelists emphasized that people in the ALICE population — working households without reserves — often fall into crisis after one income shock but may not appear in HUD homelessness counts.

Panelists also described coordination tools. United Way pointed to 2-1-1 as a statewide first-call resource and said agencies are moving toward shared platforms and “closed-loop” referrals so callers can be directly connected to services. Panelists described Access Rutherford (coordinated entry) numbers — roughly 232 people active on the prioritization list in recent weeks, representing about 157 households — and said coordinated entry helps prioritize scarce housing resources.

Why it matters: Committee members heard these data and operational descriptions as they prepare to review grant applications and make funding decisions. United Way urged the committee to favor collaborative proposals and projects that close gaps between agencies rather than proposals that operate in isolation.

Discussion, direction and decisions: the panel discussion was informational. No grant awards or funding votes were conducted during the panel; committee members were reminded that the Committee on Contributions will receive nonprofit applications for upcoming funding rounds.