The Volunteer Ministry Center (VMC) was established in 1987 by concerned individuals and churches from the downtown area who observed a growing number of homeless people on the streets during the daytime hours.  The first program was a Day Shelter which provided day time accommodations to the homeless.  Now named the Resource Center, it provides a day time transitional setting for those who are seeking a permanent residence of their own.  Additionally, VMC grew to offer a crisis counseling program called The Refuge which places an emphasis on helping the marginally housed maintain their housing.  VMC also hosts 16 rent-subsidized apartments for formerly homeless men in a case managed model.  Clinic services, including physical health, mental health and dental, are also available at VMC.   

In 2006, the Volunteer Ministry Center intentionally aligned itself with the principles of the newly created Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness which had been commissioned by Mayors Mike Ragsdale and Bill Haslam.  This Plan redirects the focus from the maintenance of homeless people to the ending of homelessness itself.  The average cost to the Knoxville community to maintain a chronically homeless person is $37,000 per year.  To maintain someone in housing costs less than half of that.  

The first strategy of the Ten Year Plan is “Housing First” which promotes the rapid housing of a homeless person, even before that individual’s problem of mental illness and/or addiction can be addressed.  The concept is that these root causes of homelessness can be more effectively addressed when the individual is in a clean, quiet place of their own, away from the chaos and temptations of the street.  VMC chose to realign programming to the Housing First philosophy as the cornerstone of its response towards the challenge of ending homelessness.