July 14, 2026

under an hour or so, and then you can chat afterwards. I want to be very mindful of time. I know I've been at a couple meetings the last week where I'm like, okay, it was supposed to end 30 minutes ago. And so, so we're gonna, we're gonna go ahead and get started. So thank you for coming. I appreciate it. My name is Lisa. I'm the executive director for FIG Solutions. If I haven't met you before, I think I've met everybody. Please sign in. I think this QR code is also on one of the sheets on the table. If it's not, there is several QR codes. If it's the one that says donate, you know what, that means you're supposed to go ahead and click that one. So that's fine. Um, so what, uh, just a little bit about FIG Solutions if you're unsure. So FIG Solutions is a nonprofit started in the midst of COVID by, uh, Clay Linkous. Um, and really there is, there was a need. So they're in property management and real estate and they just saw this need for an avenue of trying to connect people with housing, not just housing, but stable, affordable, safe housing. So that's how it was birthed. I joined the board and then last year became the executive director. And then from there we were like, okay, so now what? Like, now what do we do? One of the things we decided to do was to start the Roots and Roofs Alliance. And really this is just about putting people in the same room together It's really, we have 3 kind of areas that we usually look at. We have supportive housing, youth, families, people who just need something that makes them feel more at home, more stable, gives them a community, 'cause we know that success really starts with community. And then community partnerships. So I've done a lot in the last 6 to 8 months of just going to all the meetings and all the things, just trying to find community partnerships, people We, we do housing. I cannot find jobs for people. I can't find mental health for people. I can't— there's certain things I can't do, but there are people in the community who are really good at that. And so the community partnerships have been key with joining together and trying to help people in our housing find other avenues of support. And then we do have 7 properties. We have 6 HUD properties and also a low-income former hotel that's more of a kind of a weekly stay for families and individuals. So we want to take anybody who— so we have the properties here. We want to take anybody who is at risk for homelessness. So maybe some people are homeless, but then there's also a whole group of vulnerable people who are at risk for being homeless. And that's our job, is to find all those people, help them find more secure housing, and then also partner with community people to continue them. So Second Creek is the apartment off of Merchants, apartment building off of Merchants, and then here is our little property tour. We had a great company come out and do this for us last year. So this is one of our group homes here. Oh, maybe they each— we have 3 group homes. Um, this played fine earlier. We have 3 group homes. Each of them, I think, have 6 to 8 people. They have their own bedroom and then shared spaces. They are all HUD properties, but they do require a verification of disability. So a lot of the individuals in our group homes, which are on the left, they can live on their own mostly. So they need a little bit more support, a little more guidance. We partner with Catholic Charities who actually helps do some of the case management as well as just grocery shopping, helping think how to keep things clean, how to live, you know, I have 5 people in my house and I think we fight over the food in the pantry. So you can imagine 6 people, 8 people in a house. So it just kind of helps them. And then we have, um, these are one-bedroom apartments, also HUD-related with a verification disability, but they can mostly live completely on their own with just the minor bits of support that we give. And then Second Creek, um, is a lovely place. It is no barrier, which means, um, you don't have to have a background check or a finance check. Which a lot of people, that is a huge barrier to finding housing because they can't pass those things. They don't have a history of having good credit or whatever. That's Second Creek and they pay weekly in their studio apartments and it's amazing. Roots and Roofs Alliance, the reason we came up with this name is that we want a roof over everyone's head, but we want the roots that actually help make you secure and stable and safe instead of being a vulnerable population. We want to put all of our people at the same table, businesses who give back, individuals who who wanna improve our community, and then agencies who provide some of the support. So that's what the Alliance is, is putting everybody in the same place. And Katie's gonna go introduce Lee. Lee and his wife Alicia are amazing people because they're not just a business that wants to give back, they are individuals who truly want to pour their heart and soul into the community. So go ahead. Pig Solutions.

I'm Katie Linkous, I'm the president. My husband Clay, back there in the back, manning the Instagram setup. We, as Lisa said, founded Pig Solutions, and it's evolved as most things do. The Roots and Roots Alliance is really designed to be an intimate group of people. That our community partners and financial partners collaborating to not reinvent what someone else is already doing, but make sure that we're pushing forward the work already being done in our community and getting alongside each other and supporting it. And so tonight we asked Lee— I'll never forget the first time I saw Lee. He was the keynote speaker at the American Heart Association breakfast a few years ago, and I thought, he's off the chain, I want to be his friend. It was the most fun breakfast I had ever been to because of his keynote speech. And so we were in Leadership Knoxville together and became friends. I've gotten to know Alicia a little bit, and she's role to Lee being who he is and what he is, as most good men are that have a great woman next to them. So, um, thankful that they're here. Lee grew up in Knoxville and spent 11 seasons in the NFL as a tight end for the New England Patriots, the Buffalo Bills, the Oakland Raiders, and the Atlanta Falcons before retiring in 2022. Known as one of the league's toughest blockers, Lee built his career on grit. But he'll tell you just as fast that his own path wasn't a straight line. Back home in Knoxville, Lee founded Triple F Elite Sports Training and No Athlete Left Behind, a nonprofit that gives underprivileged young athletes the resources, mentorship, and support to compete and to thrive on and off the field. He and Alicia live in Lewisville, Tennessee with their 4 children. One has fled the nest. So super excited to have Lee here. Our son trained at Triple F, and we've been able to refer kids to NALB, their nonprofit, and just really thankful, Lee, that you've come to just help us understand how stable housing even impacts the people that you serve. So welcome, Lee.

Hello, hello, hello.

Hello.

Thank you, ma'am. Well, when I did that American Heart Association breakfast, I was fresh out of the NFL. And I was still in my feral, feral ways, trying to learn how to talk to people that weren't other animals like me. So hopefully today I'll be a little less feral. But I'm going to be me. You have my word on that. So thank you all for having me. This stuff is awesome. I've always not been frustrated, but just been confused on why folks that have huge hearts for serving don't band together with the other people have huge hearts for serving. It seems like they're laser-focused on, you know, my foundation or the things I have going on, the things I've built, you know, is where all my attention is going to go. And that's always been a little bit confusing to me on the way that, you know, I talked a minute ago, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And this is something that fires me up based off of the stuff that we see every day with our kiddos. So I have a story I want to just tell everybody. I know his family wouldn't mind. He's like a son to me. A kid named Vashawn Knowles from over in Oak Ridge. I don't know if anybody knows him. He has a younger brother named Kane. And, um, you know what happens a lot of the times at the gym, we have the for-profit side, obviously, in Triple F. Um, Katie definitely pays me at Triple F, right? So, um, so all of our folks in town that, uh, are fired up for what we can provide athletic development-wise and, you know, enhance their kids' is, you know, growth in sports and athleticism and all that. Obviously, that's the for-profit side, but what happens a lot is our kids will come to us and say, "Hey, I got a buddy that I play with that's going through a lot." So they're our biggest feeder all day, every day, is either the coach that they play for that'll call us and say, "Hey, my man's going through it, you know, could you serve him?" And my answer is always the same, you know, as long as he respects women and as long as he's not a risk to steal anything, It's the only two non-negotiables we have, then yes, I'll take him, but I gotta meet with him first. I gotta stare in his eyes. Mostly males. We serve some females as well. But like I said, I can, I can go back to my feral ways to communicate with young boys that haven't been raised in the healthiest environments. I can go back to my childhood quickly and speak their language and make sure they understand what the situation is going to be. But anyways, Vachon, unbelievable kid, unbelievable football player over at Oak Ridge. Officially have become homeless. And the heartbreaking thing about this issue, especially for single moms, we all see what's happening in Knoxville. Somebody told me the other day it's the fastest growing— we learned at Leadership Knoxville— fastest growing housing market in the country. And it's like, well, that definitely doesn't mean it's getting any cheaper. And, you know, I've seen, you know, the cost of apartments here in town and different things, and it's just crazy. It's crazy, the household income necessary to just survive. Just pay your bills, much less go out to dinner or buy your kid a new pair of cleats or whatever. And the one thing that breaks my heart the most that I've noticed is it— a lot of times these poor single moms, they end up in just vicious relationships with men because it's the only way to make ends meet. It's the only way to keep a roof over their head. And that's where Lashawn was. He had a father figure that was far from a father figure, beating on everybody in the home. Forcing him to sit down and study, you know, Muslim principles as a Christian kid, and beating him when he wouldn't do it, beating him when he wouldn't give him a report on what he had just learned. And it was just heartbreaking to me to kind of see the way they operated inside his home because mom was needing a man in her eyes. And And rightfully so, you know, a crappy rental house over in Oak Ridge beats the car. And that's what this man could provide. And all the things that came with it were torturing her children. And so Shawn comes to me, obviously they got out of that situation without me having to go whip anybody's ass, which was awesome. So that, that was cool. And, and then that's, that's where my heart lives mostly, just so everybody knows in this room and why we're here together and why I'm fired up about this. And anyway, me and Alicia can serve you and you. It's just, it's cool. This, this stuff is cool to me to make sure that kids have a safe place to stay, especially when mom is the only provider. So that's why I'm going to translate, transition to kind of my story. I had a father growing up that was an unbelievable man, my hero, the man I looked up to. Very serving heart, very, very fired up for Jesus. I remember as a kid, you know, you remember when you're a kid and your parents host Bible study at your house. Why is everybody here? It's Bible study, you know. So that was my family. My dad played pro football too. My mom and dad were married for 25 years. And then all of a sudden bankruptcy hit and post-football, you know, stress hit and alcoholism set in and then abuse set in. And it was, it was wild. And I started kind of looking back as I got the anger and just darkness inside of me out through some therapy and some awesome mentors in my life. I started to realize like, dang, man, my dad never had a father. Like, I do not have any idea who my grandfather is. I'm sure he's a big sumbitch. I can tell you that much. But, but I was— sorry, I'm getting feral again. I'm sorry. So I'm sorry. Sorry. Forgive me, dear Lord. So, so, but, but he, he was nonexistent in my father's life. So grew up in a trailer, single mom. My, my nana was feral for sure. I think she was. Married 4 or 5 different times, the men that were around my father, what happened to him in his childhood that he never told me, there's no telling. And I'm like, dang, man, if we could just create something through this gift— my 13-year-old daughter's calling me. That's only the third time in the last 30 minutes. So I'm sure it's not an emergency, baby. But, um, but so I started really growing a heart of how do I serve kids, especially young males that are either A, going through the horrible things that I had to endure as a child with a dad that was struggling with addiction and poverty and all those things. And then also, how do I serve the kids with no fathers that are dealing with the same thing my father dealt with that then caused him to not be able to have, you know, the ability to handle really hard times and adversity? Because he was great when money was coming in and he was a pro football player and everybody was petting him everywhere he went. And then all of a sudden real adversity hit and it was hell. So both sides kind of made me, led me to No Athlete Left Behind. Obviously I knew I wanted to be around athletics. I never dressed like this, just to be clear. So like I wanted to be a ball player without ball. I knew ball was over. It was time to move on to the next phase of my life. Our oldest son Brody was going into high school and I knew that it was, God let me know, man, football is over. And by the grace of God, I was able to play a long time. So, uh, that's where Triple F was born. No Athlete Left Behind was the natural way to get there. Obviously, a lot of our kids, um, I'll never forget, we had a group of kids pull in the gym one night. And listen, man, like, all of us live a certain life. Some, some of us, you know, have never seen that other side. Others of, other of us unfortunately have lived in that hell. But I had a couple employees, my front desk gal's name is Heather Turnbull. She was awesome, she was great when I first opened the business. And this mom pulled in, they lived in their car. And it was 3 kids, one was sick, sick. I mean, he was sick. He barely kept his eyes open, barely kept his head up. And this wasn't a newborn that couldn't keep his head up. This was a kid extremely malnourished that couldn't keep his head up. And just the— I'll never forget the look on her face and the way she was weeping because she had never seen anything like that. And how many people with huge hearts that want to serve have just never seen that side of the tracks? So just trying to figure out how to make everybody as aware as possible is my goal. And that's what we're going to do at Left Behind. Any way I can, obviously I'm in athletics, so I don't get over— I went to— what was the thing I went to? The other day. Oh my goodness, something house. What was it called? I went to a little breakfast. I can't remember.

Restoration? Wesley House. Yes, boom.

So I'm sitting there and I'm like, all right, God, like, I got to make enough money with Triple F so I can help Wesley House out, you know, and like, it's not about all about No Athlete Left Behind. We do some awesome stuff for athletes. But when I saw that and the things they do, and then now what Katie does, it's just cool. So trying to make sure that everybody with my resources and my voice with the way God blessed me in pro athletics to give back to all these awesome organizations and figure out a way to work together is my dream. And the one thing that I want to close with is so of course I went to my Bible and I'm like, all right, you know, it's a Google search. I'll be honest. What? Like, like what? Like what are the verses in the Bible about helping homeless people? What are the verses in the Bible? And I came to Isaiah 58:7. Share your food with the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. As we all know, relatives can be the worst sometimes because it's personal, it's emotional, we feel it more with our family, and it's hard. And I'm like, ah man, that— I was good on the other ones till that one hit me. I'm like, okay, I gotta be better to my relatives. But my point is, I feel like a lot of times you can take this one— this one— I do my Bible app every morning and it gives me like one verse and that's And it's the guy that does a 2-minute speech on that verse. And it's like I've learned that it's the context in the entire chapter a lot of times you need to go back to because this stuff can be manipulated a little bit. And so I went and I read Isaiah 58 as a whole, and essentially it's humble pie for people that are box checkers, I call them. Like we as Christians have become box checkers. Like I'm going to do all this. I'm going to tithe on Sunday. I'm going to be there every Sunday morning. I'm going to shake people's hands. And I'm gonna live a certain way, but then I'm gonna, you know, go over here and buy my $300 shoes and my $4,000 suit, and I'm gonna forget because I check these boxes and I did this Christian thing what the word really says. And the word really says— and I don't care what God you believe in unless you believe in no God— I'm assuming every religion on the planet isn't make as much money as you can, keep it all for yourself. That would be my assumption. So I'm a Jesus guy, but I'm assuming— and, and This is the things that we need to have real conversations with each other about when you have the ability to build success and have some financial freedom of like, hey man, like all of us are fired up for Jesus, all of us talk the talk, but let's, let's go to scripture when it comes to this issue and see what Jesus tells us. And it's don't be a hypocrite, man. Don't, don't talk the talk and not walk the walk. So I promise you I'll do my best to walk the walk in any way that I can serve you guys. Clay and Katie, you guys are awesome. You've been good to me and my foundation and never asked me for a thing. So that's what it's all about. Anything you all ever need from me, my intention is to support Katie and Clay Linkous any way I can, along with Wesley House and anyone else in this town that does things to serve people that need serving. But anything that you all need from me on my end, whether it's a young athlete or a kid in town that doesn't have the raising at home, Single mommas are badasses, but they're mommas. Like, they need to be able to live in momma land instead of having to be dad too. And that's where we step in is I'll jerk a knot in their ass and show them what love from a man feels like. And it's really uncomfortable, but it's a different kind of love. It's a different kind of deal. And that's what we do at No Athlete Left Behind. So anybody in here, Katie has my number. Anybody in here that ever says, man, I got this kid that's really struggling and I think that your organization could help him, And then obviously, some of our families that I know are having extreme housing issues, I'll call you. So thank you all so much. I appreciate you. Have a great day, night, whatever time it is.

So I love, you know, one of the things that I think is most powerful about what the Alliance specifically is trying to do is that bridge between working with community organizations and making the— helping the community understand that homelessness impacts people that you don't realize. It's not just the people on Broadway, right? It's not— it's your neighbor, it's the kids in your school, it's the, the teller at the grocery store. And so, you know, just last year, I think, um, a family at our son's school was experiencing a housing crisis.

So our—

Gabe's coach, football coach, put mom in touch with me. I'm helping with housing and realized we're working on housing, but there's— she's a single mom with 4 kids and he's an athlete on the football team and also a really good basketball player. And I said, I have a kid for NALB. And Rio's been there for a year now. I think he's doing great. I checked with the cashier next door. But he's doing really good. And so, like, it's not just housing, right? It's housing and. But the and can't happen if the housing piece isn't there. It has to work together. And it's also not just case management, which several of you in the room do. It's other things, like what do these kids need? They need a father figure. They need a way to pursue athletics that will then give them an opportunity that they may not have otherwise, which is a huge part of what NALB does. So thank you for sharing all that. Thank you for all that, that you all do, Lee and Alicia. I'm going to share— we're really excited about a program, before I switch the slide, that we've been working on. So We had— we did our first, um, this is next, right?

Yeah, it should be.

Okay. Um, we did our first big, like, grant writing this year.

So fun.

A ton of time on it. Thank God ChatGPT is mod because I think they make it easier than it was a couple years ago. So we did, um, we wrote for several grants and applied and got none of them.

It was okay, I cried, it's okay.

But what we just— we said like there's only so much government money that can go around, right? We're still working on other things, but we're gonna create a program, um, really thinking about what the needs of the people we serve are. And Lisa's done a phenomenal job over the last year connecting with community partners that can help provide case management. So Water Angels, CAC with our kids aging out of foster, and a lot of work with CARM. So like, we, um, Kappa and food— have pounds of food delivered for free to Second Creek Studios every month, um, from Kappa. So like, she's done an incredible job getting some of those resources and support services in place to help people with the skills they need. There's still So one thing that you have to have to maintain housing, and again, go kids, money. Money, money, money, money, money.

Money that you don't have, right.

One of the challenges at Second Creek specifically is it is a market property. There's no subsidy tied to it. We don't have any HUD benefits. I don't get property tax breaks. Like, so far we get nothing, but we offer it as affordably as we can. So as Lisa shared, you can move in there, zero barrier entry, no deposits, no security, or no background checks, no credit checks, and you pay $300 a week and that covers your rent, all your utilities, your internet.

There's a pool.

We have a pool at this place, you guys, and it is hopping. If you're ever on Merchants or like on 75 passing Merchants and you look to the right, that pool, there's floats, umbrellas, like it is WiFi, yeah. But think about it, most people in a low-income setting, they don't have a pool that they can swim in.

WiFi, yeah.

So there's multiple things. We're talking to CAC, Missy and I, just catching up about trying to do a community garden there. We have tenants who are like, hey, can you go to garden? And I'm like, yeah, let's get some orange plants.

We can't just grow anything.

I don't want to go down that road again. But so what we did is we said, okay, like, we have high occupancy rate, and I'll share some of this on a slide, but we're on a waitlist. We can move people in in 24 hours or less sometimes, but we have a really high turnover rate because they struggle to even make that weekly payment. A lot time. Kind of what Lisa was sharing, like they missed— or maybe gonna share— but like they missed one day at work or they have a kid out sick or whatever. And like the smallest glitch that sometimes we take for granted can really set them back. So when we applied for the grant money, we created this program and it was our own, our very own rental assistance program. Um, and we were going to apply the grant money to that. We didn't get the grant money, so now we're asking our partners, our financial partners. Um, but some things to share, um, just about why this is important. So we operate at a 94 to 97 physical occupancy, and that means people in rooms. And we're talking like single moms, we have couples, we have single men.

Um, the school bus comes and brings a lot of kids.

Some of our rooms, um, at the double occupancy, and so we'll have a mom with 3 kids or a 2-parent family with 2 kids, the school bus comes.

Um, you remind us how many rooms there are?

85 studio units and king and double queen units. Um, but we operate at a 70— about a 70% economic capacity. So meaning 94 to 97% of our rooms are physically occupied, but only 70% of the people consistently pay rent and are able to to keep up with their bills. What that means is obviously we are a nonprofit, we still have a mortgage, we have to keep the utilities on, right? There's expenses that we have to pay. So trying to bridge the gap between that 94 to 97% and 70%, because what happens to the 30% of people who are included in that deficit there? They end up evicted. I mean, we have— we We have to follow the rules, we connect with community partners as much as we can and try to provide support, but at the end of the day, you have to pay rent or you can't stay. And that's just unfortunately how things go. Some of the people we serve, and I know Lisa will cover this in a little bit, but individuals and women with children fleeing domestic violence, young adults aging out of foster care, and MISTIs here at CAC, and we do a lot of work with them. On average, I think we have about 5 kids that are there that would be homeless as, you know, 18, 19, 20-year-olds. Low-income households, men and women entering and reentering after incarceration, and just workforce housing. We have a ton of people that just work, that they can't, for whatever, qualify for traditional housing or afford it. So what we've put together is a graduated declining subsidy model because we really believe that people should have skin in the game. I personally, our board, our organization, I've seen— I know a lot of you in here agree that the best thing for someone is to have value in what they're doing, right? Not just being on a full subsidy where they're not paying. I mean, people want to pay. They want to feel like they're a part of that. They have some ownership in that. They're not just taking handouts, but they need that gap bridged. So what we put together is a 6-month model where we can support someone's rent for 6 months while also connecting them with our community community partners that can help them with budgeting. We partner with Pinnacle Bank and Y12, you know, helping with budgeting. How do you balance a checkbook? What do you do about your job? And budgeting is a big deal. That's— budgeting is a really big deal. We take that for granted. So month 1 to 3, our goal is to pay 100% of their rent while connecting them with community supports and help them start to learn what it's going to look like in month 4 when we pay 75% and they pay 25%, and then month 5 it goes 50/50, month 6 we pay 25%, they pay 75%, and by month 7 the goal is that we're not paying anything and they've had enough of a runway to successfully be able to pay their rent moving forward. The goal ultimately at Second Creek is to launch into longer-term housing. These are studio units with kitchenettes, and for some of our tenants, many people that have been there over a year, and it's fine for them, but that's not great for a family or a mom with kids. Like, it's good, but it's not best. And so we really want to see Second Creek in a lot of ways as a place our kids aging out of foster, our, you know, homeless elderly, where they can get the support, get back on track, develop a community, and then get into something that can be really permanent. Cost for this And you can see the breakdown there. Because of our partnerships in the community, we don't anticipate having case management expenses. We get referrals from a lot of these organizations and want to provide the housing while we partner with them for the supportive services. But if we can raise about $61,000, we can serve 10 households a year, offering about $26,000 in rent assistance over the course of the 6-month program. Um, so that is the Alliance's big financial, um, goal for this next year. But I want to make it clear that it only works because of this right here. Like, only works because of this. So all of you sitting in this room and a lot of the who aren't here tonight that partner with us on the supportive services side. You don't have— how many, how many of you are— I know, I mean, I know you, but like, how many of you are from an organization that helps provide some of those services and case management? Do you have housing? Do we own housing? Yeah. Any of you? I don't think so. We partner with— there's Northgate, we partner with ACDC on some. Okay. And then LHP Properties too. Okay. So our stuff carries over into permanent housing.

Okay.

That's— but you don't— do you own it? No. You have it because you have a partnership, right? Right. Yeah. Anybody else? I don't know. The Men of Valor.

Men of Valor.

Once a residence, but we, we rent it.

Yeah.

And it's, it's transitional.

It's a year, year-long residency.

Yeah. So I would suggest and forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can fully do what you're doing without partners who say yes on the housing side. We can't fully do what we're doing without our partners that say yes to supporting our clients in housing. So the partnership between our community partners and then our financial partners that help fund what we're doing is vital. So thank you all for being here and for all that you do.

All right, so Alliance, I'm gonna come over here. I'm getting a crick in my neck. So the Alliance, one thing I wanna say is that some of that 30%, that the eviction piece, when they start off at Second Creek, they pay weekly. And you know what, funny enough, they're okay weekly. When they go to a monthly, 'cause that's what we were doing for a while, I know several individuals, they have the money, they don't know how to budget it. They don't, they think, oh, we have money in the account. I know a gentleman who literally was at CARM. So funny enough, it's a very short story. I used to do prison ministry, met a gentleman at Bloodsoaked Correctional. He did discipleship classes with us, with our church, did all of the services, came to our church service, really was working a lot to create a better life for himself so that when he got out, he would be stable. He went to Men of Valor. He was there for about 6 months. He ended up getting reconnected to his high school sweetheart, who by the way was at Knox County Jail and then at Focus Ministry as a transitional house. And they had both found Jesus while they were incarcerated and came back together as a beautiful couple. And then I married them. So he left Menovela because he was getting married. She left. They now both work for CARM and they've been there for, I think, about a year because I think last year I talked about the story. So now fast forward a year later, Jeff calls me. He has a pro— a guy who has finished the program that he was doing through CARM and is great. He gets I think $1,500 or $1,200, something crazy amount for disability every month. But he's also an extremely nice guy, very big heart. So what does he do with that $1,200? He gives it away. He cannot, he's been evicted before. He doesn't know how to pay bills. Not only that, he was incarcerated. He can't get a lot of housing because he has a felony record. And so Jeff calls and says, hey, Can you help? And I was like, you know what, we've got a group home. Because he says, I think he needs to live with people. He needs some support. He needs to be around people. And we said, OK. Well, funny enough, our property management company, not knowing him, they call and they say, hey, he's got too much of a record. He's done this, he's done this, and this. I'm going to deny him. We're not going to let him in the housing. So I called Jeff, and I was like, hey, is this your guy? And he goes, yeah. And I said, OK, tell me a little bit more. No, no, no, he's great. Like, in fact, he's a little too compassionate. He just gives his money away. Like, he's like, he wouldn't hurt a fly. I don't know what the past was about, but he's completely He's really not like that now. Okay, so I called property management. I said, hey, I think we're okay. He moves in last week. He has a benevolence lawyer who will help pay his bills and help him budget. He's in a group home which has Catholic Charities coming in every week or every other week to help support him. I got a text today. He is amazing. He is sober. He is loving life, and he is doing really, really well. So I mean, that from like the guy I knew in prison all the way to here 2 and a half years later is just, I mean, that's like, I couldn't make that success story up. That's huge. So when I became an executive director for Fig Solutions, at one point in time, I sat down. I said, Katie, what are we doing? I mean, I know what we're doing, right? But what are we doing? And I said, if somebody gave me $50,000, $100,000, what would we do with it? Aside from give me a raise. No, I'm kidding.

We wouldn't do that.

But what would we do? Literally, if I got some money handed to me, what would we do? And so I thought, would we buy another Second Creek? 'Cause people ask that all the time. I mean, I had Mayor Ken Cannon go, Second Creek, oh, I know that. We need more of those. And I was like, well, you're the mayor, you should maybe, okay, whatever. I'm like, what, I can't, okay, thanks. Yeah, but again, I mean, people say it all the time, we need more Second Creek Studios. Okay, would we buy that? I don't think we're in the property buying business. That's not what the nonprofit was created for. The properties we do have, I think literally like fell in our laps just about. And so I don't think raising money to go and vet— now, if you have a couple million, I'll help you. We will get another Second Creek. But that's not the point of it. So to find that answer, I kind of started thinking, OK, what am I going to do? So I started going to every committee meeting, every— there are some meetings that I went to and I thought, well, I don't know what I'm doing here. I feel very out of place. Not yours.

But I did.

I went to the Knox County Homeless Coalition, went to that. That was great. Joined the warming center. Second Creek, we host a lot of— I I think almost all the supplies, Amazon wishlists for warming centers over the winter, they all come to Second Creek and they're stored in one of our, our, um, like rooms that we have. So if a warming center is open, if it's below 25 degrees, all hours of the night, they can go there and grab blankets if they need 'em, sleeping bags, cots, whatever they need. So that's been amazing. So I joined the warming center committee and then mentioned to Andrew Church here who works for Karm, hey, I kind of wanna do more. I don't know how that happened, but now I'm the finance committee chair. We don't— you have learned if you say, "I'm interested in," they vote you in when you're on vacation. Yep. So that's why. Knox Housing Continuum, which is the continuum of care, I'm doing that. Governor's Faith-Based and Community Initiative, went to that meeting last week, met some amazing people. Human Flourishing Initiative that is being piloted in one of 3 counties, Knox County is doing that, to help vulnerable populations. And that's who we serve. And so in doing all these committee meetings and kind of going to all these things, I've learned some things that I never knew about. Staggering data. So, and I got this from a couple websites that some of you may be familiar with. So do you know that nationwide, anywhere between 50 and 65% of our unhoused population have full-time jobs?

Mm-hmm.

They have full-time jobs and they're living in their car or in a shelter or under the bridge. I was under the bridge serving coffee. Along with some people who are actually doing really good. They were doing medical, like wound care. And I just, I serve donuts. So it's kind of fun talking to people. Met a UT medical student. Eventually he's going to make a ton of money and be a doctor. But at the moment, and so much debt, he's living in his car and he's under the bridge. And that's where he finds meals. And then he goes to classes. Crazy, right? Crazy. But that's who, that's who a lot of people are under the bridge. The Knox County Housing Management Information Systems dashboard. HMIS. I'm learning all kinds of acronyms as well. The government likes those. Cities that have homelessness, it's not about individual vulnerabilities. The cities with the highest amount of homelessness do not actually have higher rates of mental illness or drug use. The cities with high poverty rates do not actually have your highest homeless rates in the country. In fact, the root causes of homelessness almost always come down to housing. I think that was your quote. Foster care. About 23,000 kids age out of foster care every year, and experts estimate that roughly 25 to 25— or 20 to 25% of those young adults will experience homelessness because they don't have a community, a supportive community. 18% of our unhoused population are women fleeing from domestic violence. 16% of our homeless population are under 18. Graduation rates in Knox County for most kids is 92%, but it drops to 75% for homeless kids. And even my family, I was reading this to them practicing earlier, and they looked at me and they said, there's homeless kids in Knox County? 100%. I started all this years and years and years ago when my 28-year-old was in middle school because there were 4 homeless kids from Farragut High School living in their carts. In the Farragut parking lot, and that's Farragut. Formerly incarcerated are 10 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general public. Exact numbers aren't there because they don't really— between background and kind of time out of prison, roughly 25 to 50% of those who get out of incarceration will end up homeless. I, when I was doing prison ministry, I remember they were like, oh, we're gonna come to your church, we're coming to Knoxville, and I was like, great. They have to have a home plan to get out of prison. You have to have it on paper. It's a plan. You have to have all of that And 4 of them, Carm's address is the one we were using. And I was like, wait, Carm? Like Carm Carm? And they're like, yeah, that's where I'm going. That's my homing, that's my home plan. They were in prison for 10 years, and while they were in there, their mom and dad died and they have nothing to go home to. So recidivism nationwide is about 67%. That's the rate at which people go back to prison after they've gotten out. Tennessee's a lot better. It's about 47%. But data has confirmed, and I know Men of Valor will back me, it's also my doctorate in case you didn't know, was on recidivism rates, so I know too much. One year of programming, supportive programming, one year of faith-based supportive programming, it drops to about 15%. Yep, of going back in prison. Tying all that together, the number I was most awed by, 7 out of 10 children who have one parent incarcerated will end up in prison. And most of that is because that family has experienced homelessness because their significant breadwinner, the man, went into prison. And the mom, just like you were talking about, the mom's at home alone and can't support those kids. And I've often met several women who, um, they had a great job and a great house, lost their house, lost their job. Why? Because of the stigma that went along with their husband being arrested. It wasn't just like some horrible story. This was a family from Faragut, Bearden area. The common denominator among all of that is not about finding housing, it's about keeping it. And like Katie said, there are so many families who are one sick day, one kid's sick day away from losing their job because they can't go in. They are one car repair, unexpected car repair away from having to either lose their way to get a job Or they can't pay rent because they have to pay a $1,000 car bill. We honestly, if it was between paying for food for my kids and paying rent, I'm gonna choose food every time. And then I can't pay rent. And so there's a lot of families, we talk about those who are unhoused and you assume it's the homeless under the bridge, but there are so many populations that are just vulnerable for it. And so, and all of this, That was the answer to my question. If I can get $50,000 to $100,000, then maybe I can help a handful of people. If it's just 10 families feel more secure, because again, it's not about finding the housing, it's about keeping the housing. It's about that safety and that security and that kind of like, oh, it's not a fight or flight moment I'm in. I can actually take a deep breath and relax because this is the one thing, housing, that I don't have to worry about. Housing is one of the biggest reasons that people are— obviously, they can't find housing. The thing is, is that when you get money, you got other things you have to actually pay for, food for your family. And so when it's choosing between one or the other, we can take a little bit of that away for a couple months that, okay, I can save. And then you teach them how to budget, you teach them how to save. And then month 7, month 8, month 24, they're looking for a 2-bedroom apartment and they actually feel comfortable enough that they can sustain that because that's where we've got them to. This is just a launching pad. This isn't permanent. This is just a launching pad. I think that's why unfortunately it falls through the cracks. A lot of our HUD money is for like the homeless services and getting those people off the streets, and then it fast-forwards all the way to other areas. We're just kind of stuck in the middle. And so I think by doing this, by creating this alliance and having these levels and pulling everybody at the same, you know, and again, we don't want— just want money. We don't just want services. We want everyone to sit down at the table and talk. I was at the governor's faith-based initiative, and the funny thing is, is that Governor Lee said the reason he started that 8 years ago is because the government is transactional. That's what the government does. They have, they have money, they have services, they hand it to people. They are not relational. Your community nonprofits and your faith-based nonprofits and your faith-based churches are the ones who are trans— are relational. We are relational. So yes, this is— this program we're doing is about transactions, but it's about relationship. We want to sit down with these families and help love on them because again, if you are in a vulnerable position, worried about where your job, your food, your housing, your car is, you don't think about having those relationships. But it's been proven science that when you do have that supportive community and the people who are in your corner saying, I believe in you, I love you, and I'm here for you, and I'll help you, I'll help you figure this out. I'm not just going to give you the money because again, you give a man a fish or you teach them how to fish. We want to teach people how to fish. And so that's where this alliance has come up with. So we do have 4 levels here, Summit, Horizon, Hearth, Cornerstone. It's on your table. I'm not going to bore you with like describing it because I think you guys can read that much. Then if I can work the mouse, we do have current ones, current members here.. If you want to talk to anybody, we can certainly put you in touch with them. And then Keystone— this is just as important as the money— is our partners. It's the people that we help. Karm, we wouldn't have gotten that guy housing if Karm hadn't said, hey, call Lisa, she's got housing. That's exactly what it was. I love getting emails from people say, Andrew told me to call you. It's not even Andrew's job at Karm. But he just gives my number out, right? KAPA, Knoxville Area Project Access, is part of Knoxville Area Medical Foundation. They're amazing. We've got people who, they don't work enough or get insurance, but they need it, but they're not homeless necessarily. So they do a great food kitchen and lot of medical care. So we partner with them. Water Angels, I love them. We've got, you know what, if we could have a Water Angels van at Second Creek for every resident, helping them, take them to appointments and giving them them support. I know, right? Because we have 10, I think we have 10, like 9 or 10, 7 right now, yeah, of elderly people at Second Creek living there with the support of Water Angels, and they would not make it without having you there. And then CAC, again, those kids who age out of foster care, my heart just tugs at them. Funny enough, I was adopted. Well, I had a great family growing up. I spoiled rotten, spoiled right here. The definition of spoiled rotten right here. My mom's sitting over there, and she'll tell you I was horrible. Still am, right? She looks at me a couple years ago and says, yeah, actually, you were in foster care for like the first few months of your life. I was like, I could have put that on a college application. But in connecting with some of those families and the foster care system, It's just, it's sad. It's so sad. These kids get out and they have all of the knowledge in the world, great grades, want to go to college. They don't have an address. They don't have a financial history. They don't have a background. They've got 10 different addresses. They can't get jobs. They have the voucher for the housing and they can't get housing. So hopefully to partner with more people like that to help get those kids in there.

There we go.

That's it. I've got a couple ones. I'll go back to this slide. Thank you. I will tell everybody this is our small intimate group. We do a fun party at the end of the year as like a thank you and kind of bring people in and highlight at Topgolf. So put that on your calendars. Some of you went last year. I love it. We also have a silent auction with fun stuff. Just, you know, I'm just telling you company distilling gets a big basket. Like, you know, there's some good stuff there. Just saying. Um, it was the bath care. We got some good ones. So put that on your calendar. I'll mark that down, but I will go back up here just so you can scan for more information. And if you have any questions, please, we got, um, Jennifer and Andy, or her and Andy. Jennifer, Andy's her husband, Eric. Those two over there are on our board. Um, so if you have any questions, you can ask either one of them or anyone else.

To do this night so that our financial partners and community partners can meet, so that our community partners, if you don't know each other, can talk. Again, like, the goal is not to reinvent what someone else is already doing, but learn how we can partner with each other. One example I think about, I think it was last year, Christy, um, so Water Angels is at Second Creek. One of our sponsors there is the vape shop. Um, did that work out?

We're still giving away vape. Yes, yes. I'd still get no money. Yes, dear.

And he's not wasting a bunch of product. So that happened at this meeting last week.

I always, I tell, I've told people, like 3 or 4 people, that that was the oddest connection I think I had ever made. But it worked, right? It worked.

Yeah. If you have to run, run. There's still drinks and food. But really, like, intentionally leave time for you all to connect.

Because of the baby.

Thank you for coming. Support.

Yeah.