Nashville gets permission from the state to use pod shelters to house the homeless

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) – Years after Nashville spent $1.2 million on pod shelters, state officials now say these shelters meet their requirements as a short-term housing option.

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance sent Metro Nashville officials a memo Wednesday saying they now consider Pallet Shelters structures to be in compliance with state guidelines and can be used for short-term housing.

State Fire Marshal’s Office officials initially raised concerns about whether these shelters met requirements to use them for anything other than emergency housing. This included finding a solution to the lack of a thermal barrier for these shelters, which the memo states, “Nashville may grant an alternate approval under the adopted code.”

To comply, the state says units must be at least 10 feet apart.

Nashville purchased 108 of these structures in 2021 using COVID-19 relief money with the intention of providing emergency shelter in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.

Metro officials soon realized that these buildings could be used as transitional housing for the homeless.

City officials were told they had to find a state-certified engineer willing to endorse the safety of these buildings, even though the pods had been used to house homeless communities across the country.

Months turned into years, with almost all of these shelters in storage.

The city has set up a number of shelters outside the Nashville Rescue Mission during the pandemic to serve as COVID isolation pods. They were then taken down and put back in storage.

Pallet CEO Amy King shared this News Channel 5 investigates last year that these shelters can serve multiple purposes, including temporary housing.

“When we created the product and the concept of the village model, it was intended for both purposes. To be clear, at Pallet we believe that homelessness is an emergency and should be treated as such,” King said.

King says they have already built 120 homeless villages in 85 cities in 22 states. That’s nearly 4,000 shelters in use across the country.

Most people stay between three and six months. King says this helps them stabilize before finding something long-term. But critics say this could leave Nashville without a valuable resource the next time the city is hit by another natural disaster.

NewsChannel5 investigates King asked what she thinks about Nashville’s hesitation about the safety of its products.

“My answer to that would be: is life on the street safe? This is a much safer option than the alternative. There are constant fires and dangerous situations in encampments. We don’t talk about that, but we talk about it in relation to our locations, what we should be doing, and we would like to address any safety concerns,” King said.

This is a development story. We will let you know if and when the city decides to deploy the pods.