Opposition forming to TYP Choice

The group TYP Choice has been making news with its opposition to the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and its petition drive to force a referendum that could put a stop to the TYP. A second referendum would cut off funding for permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless slated for the old Flenniken School in South Knoxville.

TYP Choice spokesperson Ron Peabody has pretty much had the airwaves and the headlines to himself.

That’s about to change.

Longtime community activist Ray Abbas, an advocate for the poor and homeless since before he was an adult, told the Fourth District Democrats Club that a citizen’s group that will oppose the referendum is forming and will be making a formal announcement within a couple of weeks. He made his views very clear:

“One referendum would terminate and rescind prior approval of state and federal funding for Flenniken. I think this is probably the worst thing I have ever seen since I’ve been working with the homeless. You’re taking hope away from people.

“Flenniken represents a sliver of hope for those on waiting lists who went to the public meetings and saw the money approved. To retroactively go back and pinpoint a project that’s been fully funded and say ‘Let’s take it back,’ I have a real problem with that. If you’ve ever worked with someone who’s on a waiting list to live somewhere, I don’t think you could write this. I sit with people every day. I sit with grown men who are crying because they are so exhausted. KARM (Knoxville Area Rescue Mission) is so loud and noisy. You can’t get a good night’s sleep at KARM. Surely Knoxville can do better than that.”

The second referendum vote would eliminate all existing plans addressing homelessness except for Minvilla, the restoration at the corner of Broadway and Fifth Avenue.

Abbas asked the group to get the facts before they vote.

“I suspect that you’ll see folks out there trying to get your signature. I would just implore you to get the information before you give them a signature. Please don’t just give them your signature because your decision affects people’s lives,” he said.

A member of the audience wondered out loud:

“I’ve heard there are Christian ministers around here who’ve heard about the Sermon on the Mount – ‘I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was homeless and you gave me a roof. …’”

Nightmare’s end for Lonas family?

Erin Lonas is talkative, effervescent and smiles a lot.

But the smile froze on her face as she walked into the City County building last Thursday morning and spotted Bill Phillips going through the security line ahead of her and her husband, Gregg. She said little until Phillips passed through the checkpoint and started walking toward the courtroom where he was scheduled to face vandalism charges for running over the Lonas’ mailbox on April 24.

She doesn’t mind admitting she is terrified of the former school board member who resigned under pressure earlier this year. Last year the Lonases were key members of a citizens’ group that circulated recall petitions against Phillips after he pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assaulting his wife during a domestic dispute.  

“I just want this to be over,” she said.

It’s been a long four months for the Lonas family since Phillips pulled into their driveway after midnight blinking his lights and honking his horn. When Gregg went out to see what was going on, Phillips sped away, returning twice more and narrowly missing running over Gregg. Phillips crashed into the Lonas’ mailbox, demolishing it, and minutes later he crashed into a power pole a short distance down Tazewell Pike. Erin came to his aid.

Although a judge ordered him to stay away from the Lonas family when the vandalism warrants were issued, there have been additional incidents of Phillips harassing them since. Harvey Boles was present in the courtroom and was ready to testify that Phillips had refused to leave an 8th District political event where Erin and her 12-year-old daughter, Madeline, were present a few weeks ago, and that he sat down next to Madeline.

“I asked him four times to leave,” Boles said. “And his wife said they didn’t have to.”

Boles and the Lonases proceeded to the General Sessions courtroom where Judge Andy Jackson was presiding over a long docket. Gregg, the complainant, conferred several times with prosecutors, and Phillips did the same with his attorney, Nick Bunstine. It was nearly three hours before the case was called.

Phillips entered a guilty plea to vandalizing the mailbox and was sentenced to six months supervised probation, 25 hours community service and ordered to pay $745 in restitution for running over the mailbox. Phillips asked to be allowed to do his community service at Gibbs High School.

Jackson ordered him to stay away from the Lonases.

“There is to be no contact. None. There is to be absolutely no contact.

None,” Jackson repeated. “You stay away from this man, this woman and their kid. Everything ends today.”

The next day, the Lonases went to pick up their daughter, who had been staying with their grandparents because the family feared for their safety. Next month, Gregg will take another day off work to go back to court to face an order of protection that Phillips took against him two weeks ago.