UCHRA Policy Council Discusses Top Five Needs Identified In Community Assessment Survey

Upper Cumberland leaders identified housing as one of the top issues at UCHRA’s Policy Council meeting Wednesday.

In a community assessment of almost 1,000 people across all 14 counties in the region, access to affordable housing was of the top five needs. Director Mark Farley said that does not necessarily mean that there is a lack of apartments, but a larger issue with high rents.

“We’ve got to show some contractor that there is a business model that they can fill a niche,” Farley said. “So we’ve got to figure out how to convince somebody, a developer to do that. We’re not going to build our way out of the problem but we can help these families understand what they’re getting into.”

The other four needs identified were high-quality jobs, higher-paying jobs, mental health needs, and homelessness. Farley said this was the first survey in several years that did not place access to food as one of the top five needs.

Community Services Assistant Director Jordan Herald said these needs identified will help her as she applies for the Community Services Block Grant with the state. She said those funds will be put toward filling gaps in needs across the community.

“Each program year we’re able to offer assistance to individuals in all 14 counties,” Herald said. “A lot of the people know of the previous services we’ve offered like food vouchers and housing assistance. So first month’s rent, or things to keep someone from being evicted. So those kinds of things are what we’ve been able to assist with. ”

Herald said the next steps will be to continue collecting data to submit to the state. She said then they will hear back about