Belonging
Come join us for the weekly community dinner tomorrow night!
Dinner starts at 4:30, and we’re hosting a public meeting at 5:30 to share more about restoring our community center and building homes for families. More info on that public meeting and our project here!
If you’ve never attended dinner before, think of this like a potluck dinner designed to connect neighbors who might never meet otherwise. Everyone’s an honored guest. And everyone has a vital role to play. Both are crucial for building a sense of belonging within our community.
When you join us for dinner, you’re invited to:
Be a chef: Prepare and bring a dish to share with neighbors
Be a host: come between 4-4:45 to set the table and serve food
Be a connector: welcome new neighbors, introduce them to friends, help connect them to local resources
During dinner, we’ll all sit down to eat together, share stories, support, and encouragement. Sharing meals at a common table is the starting point for restoring connection & belonging - but it’s not the end.
A recent Imagine Nashville survey found that “a sense of belonging” emerged as Nashville’s core value.
Yet 22% say they don’t belong,
57% of low income families feel left behind,
and 72% see a growing divide between rich and poor.
Back in January, we met a neighbor over dinner named Chris. Chris was sleeping in a bus shelter along Dickerson Pike, right around the corner from us. Our partners at Open Table Nashville got Chris into our local coordinated entry system, shared resources with him, and checked in on him when he didn’t join us for dinner.
In June, a spot opened up, and Open Table Nashville took Chris to sign a lease on his new apartment. We are so delighted that Chris now has his own place to live!
Cowboy moving in to his new place! Shoutout to Maddie & the whole Open Table Nashville team for making this happen!
Chris waited five months for housing, and that was after being placed on a list. Currently, somewhere over 300 families are also on a waiting list for housing. In 2023-24, around 4,500 students in MNPS experience homelessness, a 27% increase over the prior year.
Nashville needs 90,000 new homes over the next decade to meet demand. But our current zoning code and zoning map are unlikely to accommodate that, leaving us with a 20,000 to 40,000 home gap. Many of our neighbors lack stable housing. And that poses an incredible barrier to showing up in the social and economic life of a community. Every one of these individuals that we’re failing to house is full of incredible worth and potential, and we’re missing out as a city and as a community when we don’t create space for and empower them.
That’s why we’re building homes at TCC.
We want to do more than give people the feeling that they belong - we want to make that belonging a reality, here in our neighborhood.
In order to build new housing for families while also preserving and restoring the sanctuary as a community resource hub, we’re requesting a special exception from the board of zoning appeals. This is not a rezoning, just a request for flexibility on parking requirements and to use the street setbacks recommended by the Highland Heights Community Plan. Here’s more on this project from last week’s update if you missed it.
Come learn more during dinner tomorrow night. We’re hosting a public meeting on July 29th from 5:30 - 7 to share more about this project and hear your feedback.
A 40,000 gap in homes feels overwhelming. And while no single source will provide all those, we believe that everyone has a vital role that only you can play in showing radical hospitality to our neighbors - including you.
If you’re invested in community run third spaces that welcome and empower all neighbors, if you believe that housing is the best way to not only end homelessness but also show radical hospitality to our neighbors, donate to TCC today.
Every dollar you invest in TCC helps us meet our neighbors, meet immediate needs for food and connection, empower neighbors to host community led events, and create a future where all people can live, work, and gather together in community as equals in dignity and worth.
