Housing, food and utilities are the top three categories for requests received by our local 211 phone line in 2023. This is similar to the nationwide trend.
The 211 Helpline is an information and referral phoneline for individuals seeking assistance in times of a crisis. Our local helpline is managed by United Way of Greater Nashville and covers 42 counties in Middle Tennessee.
Before we dig deeper into the type of requests received by our local 211, I want to examine the national trends based on the new 211 Impact Survey for 2023, which United Way Worldwide released a couple of weeks ago. This survey examines 211 call data from all 50 states. It shows that calls for housing by far outpaced all other requests for assistance, which reflects what we already know. We have a lack of accessible affordable housing for many low-income Americans.
Nationwide, 211 operators triaged about 42,000 calls daily in 2023. While the call volume spiked during the height of the COVID pandemic and has gone down somewhat, it has not receded to pre-pandemic numbers yet. Besides housing, assistance for utilities and food relief rounded up the top three request across the United States last year.
During the same time period, from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, Middle Tennessee’s 211 received 39,336 calls for the following requests (ranked in order):
Housing & Shelter 14,806 calls (37.6 percent of all calls)
Food: 5,906 calls (15.0 percent)
Utilities: 3,865 calls (9.8 percent)
Employment & Income: 2,873 calls (7.3 percent)
Healthcare & COVID-19: 2,408 calls (6.1percent)
To examine all types of call requests visit uwmidtn.211counts.org where you can filter the calls for different time periods.
The data on that website breaks each category down even further. You can see in the chart about Housing & Shelter that rent assistance topped the housing requests with 42.1 percent of calls, followed by callers who were seeking help to locate a shelter (27 percent).
LaKelia Lovan manages United Way of Greater Nashville’s 211 program. Lovan together with a part-time staff takes care of the resource side of the local 211 Helpline. “But when you call 211, you speak to a call specialist who is at Heart of Florida United Way,” Lovan explained.
What this means is that the local staff updates information about the different regional resources. That information is then accessed by call specialists in Florida who answer the calls, vet the requests, and share contact information, eligibility, office hours, and so on with people in need.
“We are in the process of bringing the call center back to Tennessee,” Lovan said. “We’re looking to do that by August 31 of this year, which is when our contract ends with Heart of Florida, so that’s when we plan to bring it back.”
Another big change United Way of Greater Nashville plans for 211 is to transition from the Wellsky software to Visionlink. According to Lovan, Visionlink will be more user-friendly with added capabilities including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and API, which stands for Application Programming Interface. Chattanooga and Knoxville are already using Visionlink.
In total Tennessee has six 211 systems and all of them plan to switch to Visionlink, making communication across the state easier and more attractive to secure additional funding. The data collection capability of 211 certainly allows for state government and other organizations to delve into the needs across the state.
Another reason for partnering with other 211 providers across the state is to develop a back-up system in case of emergencies. “So, if Nashville goes down, Knoxville can answer,” Lovan said, explaining that the benefits for having the call center located outside of Nashville became clear during the Christmas bombing of 2020 in Downtown. While United Way of Greater Nashville had lost power and the Internet was out, the fact that the 211 call center was in Florida allowed people to continue to call in and speak to a call specialist. The same situations have happened during tornadoes and other occasions when power was lost locally.
United Way of Greater Nashville’s 211 serves as a resource in case of citywide emergencies, which is noted in written Nashville’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP). 211 is an active member of the local VOAD, which stands for Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster. Lovan said that if, for example, a tree is down due to a tornado, people can call 211, the information will be entered into a database (Charity Tracker) that connects all local nonprofits and someone who provides tree removal work during an emergency situation will get the message and can respond. This particular service connection, however, is only happening in Davidson County so far. Lovan’s dream is to eventually be able to have the capacity to offer such services across the region. That effort has already started with proactive measures in Clarksville to set up a similar emergency response system through 211. But all that takes funding and more staff to manage, which brings us back to the benefits of statewide collaboration among the different 211 operators.
Data from the 211 system allows us to look at needs over time. The 2023 nationwide 211 Impact Survey shows that, “housing assistance referrals continue to increase, with total referrals nearly double pre-pandemic numbers.” Housing-related requests increased from 2.6 million in 2018 to 5.3 million in 2023.
I examined some trends through our local 211 database posted on uwmidtn.211counts.org. The database goes back to June 2019, which is where I started when looking at trends for Housing & Shelter, Food, and Utilities requests. Housing & Shelter requests steadily increased since 2019, and looking at the last 365 days, the call volume has reached over 15,000, indicating that housing needs continue to rise in the 42-county coverage area of Middle Tennessee.
One thing to be aware of is that 211 is a helpline that refers people to providers for assistance. A call is listed as resolve if a 211 call specialist has been able to provide the caller with resource information.
“We don’t know if you got connected because we don’t do close loop right now,” Lovan explained. “That is something we’re thinking about doing in the future.” The goal is to provide at least three resource, if available, in a person’s area. If a call is not resolved, that means the system does not have any resource in the database.
Call specialists are trained to vet calls for other needs and help link people with information to those additional services. For example, someone who is requesting rent assistance may also be in need of food. In addition, call specialists are trained to address crisis calls.
The accuracy of information depends largely on agencies keeping 211 updated. Lovan highlights their partnership with Second Harvest Foodbank, which provides daily updates to 211 about opening hours or any changes in services.
“I would love for every agency to do that,” Lovan said. “That doesn’t always happen, but we do try to update each resource annually.”
One proactive service our local 211 provides is to ask callers if they are participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). If they are not participating yet, they are asked if they want to do an assessment to see if they qualify for SNAP, which is also known as food stamps. People who qualify will then be referred to the Department of Human Services (DHS) to apply for these benefits. 211 operators will make a follow-up call to check if people were able to connect with DHS and help them overcome any barriers if they have not been able to reach DHS yet.
In our conversation, Lovan stressed that if anyone knows of resources that are not yet listed in the Middle Tennessee 211 system, they should reach out and alert her, so she can add it. After all, the system is most useful when resources are actually listed and updated by the agencies that provide them.