Local businesses band together to furnish and stock KCDC’s Liberty Place
Liberty Place is Knox County's first veteran-dedicated affordable housing project.
Local organizations helped prepare housing units at Liberty Place, which is now ready for move-in, thanks to Knoxville’s Community Development Corporation (KCDC). The complex will be the first site exclusively for veteran housing.
Located at 3627 Division Street in West Knoxville, the complex offers 32 one-bedroom apartments to those who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
Knoxville’s business community banded together to bring bedding, towels, and toiletries to the units they adopted.
“The completion of Liberty Place means veterans now have a secure place to live while they work to stabilize their lives,” said Ben Bentley, the Executive Director and CEO of KCDC. “The generous contributions from organizations have turned these apartments into homes, and we’re grateful for the community’s support in helping a vulnerable group of veterans.”
So far, units have been adopted by individuals and groups including Paris Angel, Mary Burrus, Deon Ford, RaeLynn Herbster, Kerry Lovely, Karen Milliken, Tim Vowell, Beaver Ridge United Methodist Church Dorcas Circle Women’s Group, Daughters of the American Revolution (Emory Road and Samuel Frazier Chapters), Irreverent Warriors, Larry and Donna Edwards, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Teresa Maples, Maury Middle School, Leadership Knoxville Class of 2024, NOI, Ossoli Circle, University of Tennessee Medical Center Hospice Services-Knoxville, and the Women’s Council of Realtors Knoxville Network.
Additional donations, both monetary and in-kind, were provided by Susan Cash, First Baptist Church Sevierville, Devoted Health, Freedom Investment Group, and several other individuals and organizations.
Government and institutional support came from entities such as the City of Knoxville Affordable Housing Fund, Knox County Government, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office. U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett also secured Community Project Funding for the development.
Knox County Commissioner Courtney Durrett, who helped organize the project alongside her fellow members of the Leadership Knoxville Class of 2024, said, “Leadership in Knoxville takes many forms, whether it’s serving in public office, leading a nonprofit, or running a business. Helping veterans is a meaningful way to give back, and I’m proud of my classmates for embracing this cause.”
The Veterans Affairs (VA) will have offices on-site to offer residents case management services, including coordinating healthcare and community resources.
Each fully furnished unit, including 16 that are ADA accessible, comes with utilities and features like walk-in showers and on-site maintenance. Veterans residing at Liberty Place are part of the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, a partnership between HUD and VA to transition veterans from homelessness to permanent housing.
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