KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knoxville's mayoral candidates faced off ahead of early voting in the Knoxville mayoral primary election.
Housing affordability and homelessness played key roles in Tuesday night's forum. The League of Women Voters held the event with multiple other groups helping them at the Knoxville Public Works Center. The questions came from the audience after they were screened for relevance.
The question to kickstart the forum was how each one of them planned to address homelessness.
"I plan to get a homeless shelter built," R.C. Lawhorn, mayoral candidate, said. "Right now the homeless have spread out all over the city. We see them everywhere they're sleeping in the woods or sleeping by the street until we can get them in one location, we cannot treat them. "
Addressing homelessness set the stage for incumbent Mayor Indya Kincannon, who gave examples from her current term.
"We have more to do. So we're looking and actively making changes to improve our efforts to end and prevent homelessness," Kincannon said. "And one big way of doing that is better coordination. So I'm proud to announce because I'm gonna get you may not know that we have in the process of opening a joint office on housing stability with Knox County."
The audience heard each of the candidates' perspectives.
"This is far bigger than the city far bigger than the county," Jeff Talman, mayoral candidate, said. "In my view, we need a psychiatric facility because we have people who are coming on down on the sidewalk. There's nothing compassionate about that we need to shift the frame on how we do on compassion, we also have a major safety issue."
Each candidate had their own view on why this is a problem to address in Knoxville.
"First off data, data points to 61% of homelessness is due to affordability," Constance Every, mayoral candidate, said. "So it's not drugs. It's not mental health, it's... affordability. The first thing we need to do is create an immediate emergency shelter. The city has several surplus properties that we aren't seeing on Broadway."
Every's opening statement included the following main points:
- Empower the vote to include everyone
- Address affordability
- Equal access to food.
Kincannon talked about what she's already done:
- Installed police body cameras
- Addressed housing with local funds
- Promoted public health safety
R.C. Lawhorn plans to work on the following main issues:
- School safety
- Crime rate
- Address the homeless problem
Jeff Talman's speech focused on his goals for:
- Unity
- Safety
- Prosperity for this city
All candidates agreed increasing rent was a problem. The question was whether they planned on doing something about it if they were the next mayor.
"The first thing I would do is actually quiet down slumlord regulations," Every said.
The audience heard about instant solutions.
"The city owns a 5-acre parcel right now, the McClung warehouse," Talman said.
Long-term solutions were also mentioned during the forum.
"We need to look at building apartment complexes that are smaller, more affordable, cheaper," Lawhorn said.
There is something that blocks these solutions.
"Unlike some other states and cities, we do not have legal authority to impose rent control," Kincannon said.
This race has just begun.
This year, voters will choose a mayor, a few city council representatives and a municipal judge. The primary is Aug. 29, and the regular election is Tuesday, Nov. 7. Early voting in the primary election will run from Aug. 9 to Aug. 24. You can learn more at this link.