Elaborate Homeless Camp Lobbies To Stay On Hill Above Nashville’s Adventure Science Center

Update at 11:10 a.m. Tuesday

A notice posted Tuesday at the homeless camp at Fort Negley tells squatters that Metro Parks will begin enforcing its camping ban on Sept. 15 – although officials said they’re willing to meet one more time with homeless advocates.

The one-page posting cites a section of Metro Code: “No person shall tent or camp or erect or maintain a tent, shelter or camp in any park, except in those areas specifically designated by the Board for such purposes.”

The notice goes on to offer aid to residents of the tent village, including moving assistance, storage space, emergency shelter and a 24-hour crisis line.

This notice to clear tents from a homeless camp was posted near Fort Negley on Tuesday. Credit: submitted

Several advocacy groups have scheduled times to be on site in the coming week to help arrange for more permanent housing and other basic needs.

A Metro Parks board meeting at noon Tuesday did not include the camping situation as an agenda item, but more than two dozen homeless advocates and tent village residents attended.

They interjected and spoke to the board for about 14 minutes before Parks Director Tommy Lynch agreed to meet next week to discuss giving them more time.

But he said the Mayor’s Office, Metro Social Services and the Metro Homelessness Commission had already agreed to the Sept. 15 camp closure date.

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Chris Scott F. – as his byline appears in Nashville’s homeless newspapers – has built at least a half-dozen flooring systems in the woods between the Adventure Science Center and the Civil War-era Fort Negley.

He has been dragging wooden pallets into the woods there for the last three years. He pries the boards apart and nails them back together – only much tighter, like a sprawling hardwood deck. Then his fellow campers stake their tents atop these risers and keep dry.

Each circle of tents occupies its own clearing, like cul-de-sacs in what has become a tent village subdivision.

“This is an ingenious idea. This works,” he says. “I’ve got wall-to-wall carpeting, I’ve got toilets. We’ve got wildlife. We’ve got the birds. We’ve got the sounds of the city. We’re not hurting anybody.”

But this homeless camp – the city’s most elaborate – could soon be dismantled, with the squatters ordered to clear the woods. Some say it’s long overdue. But at the same time, a counter movement argues that a well-run tent community might actually be a viable type of housing.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN

Chris Scott F. – or “The Captain” – shows off one of his custom wood decks, which he constructs from the slats of discarded pallets.

Chris Scott F. stands less than 5 feet tall, with long hair, a penchant for excitability and a reputation for workmanship that earned him a nickname: The Captain.

“I guess I helped out some train kids and they were the first ones to call me Captain,” he said. “I put them up in some of my tents. … I’ve put people up here and I’ve watched people get out of here.”

He’s like an all-purpose city manager. He hauls trash bags away. He tears out vines that creep up the trees so he can string tarps above the tents. And out on his bike, he tows a trailer to pick up jugs of clean water.

It’s all for a community of about 30 people living on the hill. The Captain says it’s a stable, safe place – more accommodating than some shelters and a stepping stone to permanent housing or jobs.

“The idea is: give people a start. These people, some of them have nothing and they have no place to start,” he said.

Now, facing removal, he’s proposing a radical idea: make the tent village permanent on this land, which is owned by Metro Parks, which typically does not allow overnight camping.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN

Several tents at “Camp Negley” stay dry atop wooden risers.

“All they have to do is decide it’s worth the effort to try a prototype,” says The Captain. “We could do something amazing. The entire nation would turn around and say, ‘Look what Nashville has done!’ ”

But it’s not that simple, said Tommy Lynch, director for Metro Parks.

“If we willingly ignore the responsibilities that we have at doing our jobs, then it opens the city up to liability,” Lynch said.

While the parks board chose not to clear the camp during the winter, more people have since arrived. There’s evidence of squatting inside nearby Greer Stadium, former home of the Nashville Sounds. And preservationists have complained about disturbances to Fort Negley.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN

Metro Parks Director Tommy Lynch said he has compassion for the homeless, but cannot relax overnight camping rules for a squatters’ encampment.

“You have a sense of humanity and compassion. And homelessness is not a simple issue,” Lynch said. “If it was a simple issue … there would be a template to resolve it.”

But there’s just not a way for Metro to oversee a camp site, he said. In fact, Lynch doesn’t call it “camping” if the intent is to stay indefinitely.

With the clock ticking, homeless advocates have been visiting the camp to figure out where people can go.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN

This hand drawn map shows the homeless village between Fort Negley and the Adventure Science Center, complete with named cul de sacs for the small huddles of tents.

Lindsey Krinks, of Open Table Nashville, recently arrived near sunset carrying a clipboard and a sketched map. She said campsites are the only option for some people stuck on housing waiting lists.

And this camp has its perks.

“We’re centrally located here,” she said. “There’s meals and showers and laundry within walking distance, which is huge. There’s bus lines so people can get to their appointments, whether that’s housing, case management, health care.”

The alternative – clearing the camp – seems worse to her.

“We’ve heard some people say, ‘Well, we’ll have to go to another camp site.’ So they’re just moving further off the grid,” Krinks said.

That goes for camper Anthony Caylor, who has come to feel safe at the camp.

“There’s not really no troublemakers up here. And it’s a pretty decent environment,” he said.

Caylor got a bus pass from Krinks, but his housing outlook is grim.

“[Krinks] said it could be two-to-six months to get an apartment. But if they close this down, I’ll just take my tent somewhere else and wait on housing,” he said.

Relocating could be even more of an ordeal for The Captain – who’s deeply invested and still hammering away on his latest split-level flooring system.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN

This hand drawn map shows the homeless village between Fort Negley and the Adventure Science Center, complete with named cul de sacs for the small huddles of tents.

“A million people have come up with all these solutions to solve the homeless problem – end homelessness – and none of them has worked. I’m offering up a solution,” he said, voice rising. “If they want to tear this down, they better bring chainsaws!”

Camp supporters gained hope this month when the Department of Justice said an Idaho law that bans public camping could be unconstitutional. But, so far, Nashville’s legal department says that opinion doesn’t apply here.

If nothing changes, Metro Parks could clear the land in the next week, then create hiking trails between the Adventure Science Center and Fort Negley at the top of the hill.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN

If he had his way, The Captain would call his home Eagle’s Nest Camping Community – and secure an official Bass Street address.