About Judith Tackett

I launched Tackett Consulting, LLC. in January 2022, and immediately started with a contract with United Way of Greater Nashville's The Family Collective, which aims to prevent and end family homelessness. I also entered an agreement with The Contributor, Nashville's street paper to write two columns and assist with funds development and grant writing.

Since then, Tackett Consulting, LLC. has worked with multiple nonprofits in different ways including with:

Strategic planning;
Project budgeting;
Report writing and editing;
Communications including PR, blogs, and newsletters;
Research overview presentation on different topics;
Review of data outcomes;
Assisting with conference planning;
Facilitation of meetings; and
Providing general guidance and leadership development in one-on-one and small-group settings.

My background is in journalism. I believe that as a reporter I had a platform and a responsibility to write about a city's growth and its impact on complex social issues such as poverty, homelessness, foster care, and juvenile justice. I started with a new publication in Nashville called The City Paper where I was one of the first reporters hired in 2000. I covered city growth, health, West Nashville neighborhoods, the state legislature, and I created my own poverty-related beat. When the city formed a task force on homelessness, I began reporting on that topic.

After leaving The City Paper, I freelanced for a while and was contracted by Metro departments to help out with newsletters and annual reports. That's how I got connected to Metro Social Services and the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission. Eventually, I was hired by the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission full-time as their communications coordinator. I later became the assistant director and eventually director. At the end of 2021, I left after years of working for the local government for more than a dozen years.

I hold two bachelor's degrees in Journalism and in Political Science, and two master's degree in Mass Media Communications and in Civic Leadership. While most of my work has been regional, I have accepted contracts from national organizations. I have presented ideas and solutions at national conferences and participated in global work sessions.

My special expertise includes understanding how Metro Nashville government works, what to pay attention to, and which questions to ask.

Over the past year, I had the opportunity to not only write my columns for The Contributor but also help develop a street tour called Unseen that will highlight the voices of people experiencing homelessness and how they present Nashville.

I am also proud to partner with Tasha AF Lemley and co-produce the podcast In My Place, which highlights the interconnectedness of housing and homelessness and educated listeners on what cities like Nashville can do to prevent and end homelessness. In My Place produced nine monthly episodes, which aired on WPLN's flagship radio show from February-October 2024.

I first became interested in homelessness in Nashville when my best friend got to know Earnest, who was hanging out near Cafe Coco, in West Nashville and experienced chronic homelessness.

My friend engaged a group of us to support Earnest (including a guy I met through this impromptu caretaker team who later became my husband). We realized quickly that what Earnest needed most was a steady and safe place to sleep.

So, we organized a fundraiser to raise rent money. Then we rented an apartment (I was a poor student then, but ended up signing the lease and essentially subled the apartment to Earnest - all was done in agreement with the landlord). Once Earnest was in housing, we rotated amongst us about who was checking in with him and when, making sure he was taken care of. By now he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. We also linked him to professional social workers, connected him with doctors, and coordinated care and food during his past months. Having us - especially my friend - as advocates made a huge difference in his care coordination. I recall that when one social services team did not build a strong enough relationship with Earnest, my friend made sure another team was assigned to work with him.

In essence, we instinctively implemented an intervention called Housing First. It was the late 1990s and Housing First was not yet a well-known term to describe one of the most effective interventions to address chronic homelessness. Housing First, we learned quickly, really starts once a person is in permanent housing. This means that once a lease is in place, the support services, check-ins, case management, doctor appointments, etc. really pick up. Earnest was engaged in all of this, and he ultimately determined what he needed.

That's how I learned that Housing First is NOT housing only. Support services are needed to help people address underlying issues, set their own goals, and succeed in meeting some (or all) of their goals.

But I also learned quickly that without access to permanent housing, homelessness won't end, and therefore, there are no shortcuts to ending homelessness. Housing, support services, community building, collaboration, and coordination was the only way to help Earnest - and others - to move our of homelessness into housing.