Signs placed around ‘Old Tent City’ in Nashville with deadline for encampment residents to move out

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — They call Nashville home, but by the end of the week, they will need a new place to live, according to signs that have been placed around an encampment site.

Several warnings have been posted about plans to demolish structures in what many say is now one of the largest homeless encampments in the city.

Sheldon Diggs has been making food and bringing it to those who need it most for the past seven years.

“I started with just a few meals and just wanted to come out and help,” he said. “I’ve had a history of being homeless myself. I’ve definitely struggled, I’ve been in the military, so I’ve struggled with mental health, so I understood food insecurity. I had that growing up, too, as well, and I just wanted to give back to my community.”

However, while he’s gotten to know the people living in “Old Tent City” — which sits between Hermitage Avenue and the Cumberland River — Diggs was greeted by something new this week.

“Sad, a little sad. I mean, I kind of understand both sides of it, but just a little sad for some of the people,” he said. “The people here, this is their home, and so you’re asking someone to leave their home. This is what they know.”

The sign gives a clear deadline, reading, “All Structures are scheduled for demolition the week of September 16th through the 20th. All [residents] need to move out no later than September 13th.”

“It’s wrong; they are violating our rights. We did not choose to become homeless, okay? This is a circumstance that happened to us, and we’re trying to build ourselves up, and the way I see it, all they’re doing is tearing us down,” Vanessa Hamrick-Carey, who lives next to where a sign was placed.

News 2 ran into Venessa and her daughter, Mel. Their entire family has been living in the encampment for the past three years, although Mel has recently been able to find housing. However, they said many people have misconceptions about what happens around the tents.

“They think we’re all addicts or alcoholics, and that’s not the case. It’s just we’ve hit on hard times and this is where we landed,” Vanessa said.

With the clock running out for those in “Old Tent City,” Vanessa said packing and leaving like those living in other encampments have had to do isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially since she’s seen more people flowing into the area.

“We were told a year ago they were going to shut it down, but instead what they don’t realize about it, other encampments, Hermitage, Brookmeade, all the other encampments, all the ones that they’ve closed down, the ones that didn’t get in housing slowly trickled to here,” she explained.

After this story aired, Open Table Nashville, a nonprofit that aims to tackle homelessness, sent News 2 a copy of a petition from “Old Tent City” residents addressed to Nashville leaders:

To TDOT, Mayor Freddie O’Connell, Councilmember Jacob Kupin, and the Nashville community:

We, the residents of Tent City, are coming together to speak out because many of us are facing displacement and the destruction of our homes.

Some of us were born and raised in Nashville, others of us came here for a fresh start. Many of us have lived in other camps that were closed down before coming here–Fort Negley, Jefferson St. Bridge, the TA camp, and others. We are taxpayers and we pay for the highways and bridges we live under. We’re no different than anyone else, and everyone is one paycheck or disaster away from homelessness. We’re just asking people to treat us like human beings.

The structures our government is planning to bulldoze are our homes. We have memories here and have invested countless hours and our own resources in constructing them. We can’t just pick up and move. We need time. We also need somewhere to go and rebuild until we have long term options.

In Tennessee, it’s a felony to sleep on public property, which is like saying it’s a felony to be homeless. This is an abridgement of our constitutional rights and we, like everyone, deserve to have access to a place to call home.

We are respectfully asking TDOT, Mayor Freddie O’Connell, and Councilmember Jacob Kupin for these things:

1. A 90-day extension on any demolition process. We need more than two weeks to dismantle the homes we’ve built and relocate our belongings and rebuild.
2. Dumpsters and regular trash pick up. We want to be able to clean up our homes and neighborhood like other Nashville residents. It’s more cost effective for us to be able to clean our area.
3. Permanent housing. Everyone deserves a home.
4. A campground where people can go when Tent City closes. There is always going to be a need for a place people can go until they get housing. A lot of us have pets and there are lots of couples here. Service organizations also need centralized places to meet with people. Tent City has existed since the early 1980s. All the other big camps have been shut down, shelters are full, and it’s nearly impossible to find housing that we can afford, especially housing that will take our pets.
5. If anyone has to be displaced, they need to have access to storage for their belongings, adequate tents and tarps, and relocation support.

Thank you for your consideration. We don’t plan to leave our homes until we have more time or until these requests are met.

To members of the Nashville community: We ask that you would support us in our immediate requests and needs, and in pushing for long term solutions. People here have been through a lot, and we have to stand up together. Please put people over property.

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The area is slated to become Wharf Park , an approximately 25-acre undeveloped property on the Cumberland River near downtown Nashville. The land was purchased under former Mayor John Cooper.

In early 2020, Metro Parks and Recreation launched a master planning process to collaborate with the community to establish a vision for the site’s future. The master planning process was frozen during most of the COVID-19 shutdown. In the spring of 2021, Metro Parks relaunched the project.

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