Features
Q&A with Mark Dunkerley
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After a 15-year stint at the Oasis Center, Mark Dunkerley will step down as President and Chief Executive Officer on June 30.
The Contributor (https://thecontributor.org/author/judithtackett/)
After a 15-year stint at the Oasis Center, Mark Dunkerley will step down as President and Chief Executive Officer on June 30.
Which cities are doing well when it comes to reducing homelessness?
Against the outcry of neighborhoods and businesses, cities like Nashville have been desperate to find quick and highly publicized solutions to shut down encampments and reduce homelessness. This allows politicians to look like they are doing something — or at least that has been their theory. By now, we know that focusing solely on large encampment closures at the cost of actually building an effective system that helps people access permanent housing within 90 to 120 days is not working. Let me state that Nashville is not the only city jumping on the bandwagon of politicizing the closure of large encampments. The goal is apparent.
Diane Lance, a well-known national advocate for victims’ rights, currently serves as the director of Metro’s Office of Family Safety.
As of this writing, Nashville has recorded close to 2,500 domestic volence (DV) victims in 2025 so far, with more than 660 children present during those incidents. More than 261 victims and 144 children were taken to safe places as a result of a domestic violence incident just this year. Victim advocacy organizations have been fighting for additional funding from the state. Gov. Bill Lee revised his budget request and included $20 million in state dollars for agencies serving victims of IPV and sexual assault.
According to an article by Anita Wadhwani published in the Tennessee Lookout on March 31, 2025, “the governor’s funding — $10 million in grants for each of the next two years — fell short of the request for $25 million in recurring state funding a coalition of state nonprofits say they need to preserve current services. “Sexual assault centers, domestic violence shelters and child abuse counseling agencies — many serving key roles in working with law enforcement to bring perpetrators to justice — have seen their share of federal Victims of Crime Act funding dwindle from a peak of $68 million in 2018 to $16 million last year,” Wadhwani wrote.
“We need this belief in people’s agency and dignity. That is what I remembered the spirit of The Contributor being.”
For the past year, a group of Contributor vendors has regularly met to provide feedback and direction to staff on different issues
Current policies do one thing, and they do that well: attempt to make homelessness invisible.
Berry works at the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency as the Chief of Staff.