In 2006, the Volunteer Ministry Center (VMC) intentionally aligned itself with the principles of the then 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 annually.  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.  

VMC’s case managers provide the assistance, support and encouragement needed for those individuals to achieve their highest level of self sufficiency.  Case managers work with each person to develop an individualized service plan that emphasizes the path to housing.  Once that plan is developed, the real work begins.  The individual is expected to achieve certain benchmarks noted in the service plan.  They are expected to attend classes and workshops through which the benchmarks are achieved.  It should be noted that housing is always accompanied by case management which begins in the Resource Center and continues until the individual reaches their highest level of self sufficiency.