The Consolidated Plan helps the City assess its affordable housing and community development needs and market conditions, and make data-driven, place-based investment decisions. The Consolidated Plan serves as the framework for a community-wide dialogue to identify housing and community development priorities that align and focus funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Planning and Development (CPD) formula block grant programs.

The 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan will set funding priorities for an expected $15 million-plus (over five years) of HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships, and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) dollars for affordable housing, homelessness, economic development, and other community development activities. Congress appropriates funding annually and the Year One (2025-2026) Action Plan specifically describes funding priorities for the first year of the Consolidated Plan period, beginning July 1, 2025. 

HUD notified the City of Knoxville on May 14, 2025, that it will be receiving $2,580.370.77 in the 2025-2026 program year: $1,636,277.00 in CDBG funds, $944,093.77 in HOME funds, and $0.00 in ESG funds, beginning July 1, 2025. The City plans to contribute $280,000.00 in local Homeless General Funds. At this time, the City estimates approximately $2,921,498.31 in unspent prior year HOME funds and $204,051.18 in unspent prior year CDBG funds to be available to be budgeted to 2025-2026 activities, as well. The City of Knoxville also anticipates receiving $500,000.00 in HOME Program Income and $90,000.00 in CDBG Program Income during Year One. The total amount of funds, estimated at this time, to be available for Year One is $6,575,920.26.

Of the total funds available for Year One, the City proposes to spend $6,575,920.26: $5,694,640.13 (87%) on Affordable Housing; $327,255.40 (5%) on Grants Administration, $324,024.73 (5%) on Services (including Homeless Services), $205,000.00 (3%) on Homeless Facility Improvements, and $25,000 (<0.5%) on Design and Technical Assistance. Please see the draft plans (link below) for further detail.


The document containing both drafts of the Consolidated Plan and the Year One Action Plan will be available for public review on June 7, 2025, here:

Draft Plans for Public Review Link (coming June 7)

A hard copy will also be available in the City’s Housing and Neighborhood Development (HND) Office, Suite 532B (5th Floor City-County Building), 400 Main Street, Knoxville. The draft plans will be available for public review and comment for a period of 30 days, ending July 7, 2025. Comments are accepted by email and/or mail by contacting Linda Rust at [email protected] and City of Knoxville Housing and Neighborhood Development Department, P.O. Box 1631, Knoxville, TN 37901.


The City of Knoxville will host a public hearing to discuss the draft plans on July 1, 2025, at 6:00 PM at the City’s Public Works Service Center, 3131 Morris Avenue, Knoxville 37909. The meeting will also be held virtually via Teams. The Teams link will be available here on June 30, 2025:

July 1, 2025, 6:00 PM Public Hearing Teams Link (coming June 30)

Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback on the draft plans during the meeting. If you are unable to attend, your feedback is still appreciated through July 7, 2025. 

Once the public comment period has concluded, all comments will be reviewed and considered before the final plans are submitted to HUD by July 13, 2025. For information about the HUD funds that Knoxville receives, click here. 



Community engagement is an important part of the development of the Consolidated Plan (and Annual Action Plans). The process includes consultation with community-based groups and participation from Knoxville residents. The City is engaging the community, both in the process of developing and reviewing the proposed plans, and as partners and stakeholders in the implementation of CPD programs. By consulting and collaborating with other public and private entities, the City can align and coordinate community development programs with a range of other plans, programs and resources to achieve greater impact. 

Since August 2024, the City’s Housing and Neighborhood Development department has engaged hundreds of Knoxville residents and community groups to better understand community needs and identify gaps in activities that impact low- and moderate-income city residents.  

The community engagement process involves four phases: 

March - September 2024: The City of Knoxville engaged residents in the development of a  Fair Housing Plan. The information learned through the planning process informs the development of this five-year strategic plan. 

August - October 2024: The public engagement campaign kick-off was held Aug. 1, 2024, including asking what Knoxville needs.

The City launched a community needs survey, in English and Spanish, asking people to think about what Knoxville needs in terms of HUD-eligible activities, including: Affordable Housing, Preventing and Ending Homelessness, Economic Development, Neighborhood Revitalization, Public Infrastructure Improvements and Public Services. Survey Monkey was used to make the surveys available online, The City also partnered with CONNECT to distribute paper surveys to people who are typically under-represented and living within areas of low income and minority concentration. CONNECT distributed paper surveys to collect survey responses from 36 people in the East Knoxville community in September 2024. A total of 540 survey responses were collected.

The City of Knoxville held two public meetings in September, asking people to think about what Knoxville needs. The online survey was adapted for use in the meetings with the use of Mentimeter software and polling equipment. Public meeting attendees were able to use their cellphones or other devices (i.e. laptops, notebooks/I-pads) to answer the survey questions shown in the meeting’s Power Point presentation. Their anonymous responses were recorded by the software and communicated live as part of the presentation. Twenty-three (23) people completed the surveys within the meetings. After the presentations, attendees were invited to share in small groups, more open-ended comments, to ask questions, and discuss their ideas/concerns about needs in the community.

The City of Knoxville held nine focus group meetings during this time – representing 128 individuals from all quadrants of the city and organizations of underprivileged populations. The organizations that participated included Construction Career Roundtable, the Mayor’s Council on Disability Issues (CODI), Youth Action Board (YAB), Knoxville Leadership Foundation (KLF) KnoxWorx, Housing and Neighborhood Development (HND) Affordable Housing Fund Advisory committee, AAERTF, Knoxville Homeless Coalition, Knox Pride, and the City’s Neighborhood Advisory Council. 

City staff then gathered data from all survey sources, comments from notes taken at the meetings and focus groups, and other comments received, and broke them down into nine needs categories used in the survey to further elucidate the survey data. Preliminary data from both local sources (KnoxHMIS’s Community Dashboard on Homelessness, 2024 City of Knoxville Fair Housing Plan, the Knoxville-Knox County Community Needs Assessment, the Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition, AAERTF, City of Knoxville “Vision Zero,” United Way Bright Steps Action Plan, Western Heights Action Plan, City of Knoxville Housing Strategy Update, KAT Reimagined, Knoxville Area Association of Realtors State of Housing Report, East Tennessee Realtors Housing Market Forecast, East Tennessee Development District, etc.) and national sources (Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy and American Communities Survey) helped confirm key findings from the community engagement process.

More than 600 people were involved in this phase of the process: 540 people completed surveys; 128 people were consulted through a focus group/questionnaire, and 23 people attended a public meeting in September 2024. Along with local data about community needs, the information gained through the community engagement process will help to identify priorities for HUD funding over the five years.