Bedford County Listening Project and concerned residents will hold a press conference Tuesday, Jan 21 to release results from a year-long community survey about housing in the county.

The results shed light on the dire housing struggles working families face and call on city and county officials to take action.

Leaders of the Bedford County Listening Project will share data and results from the more than 240 residents they spoke with. Renters will speak about their own horrific challenges living in unsafe and inadequate housing with few - if any – options.

“The city of Shelbyville has ignored the suffering of working families and rewarded a small monopoly of ruthless landlords for too long. We call on them to work with renters to craft solutions that will lift all of us and make our community safer, stronger and more vibrant, so we can all live with dignity and opportunity,” said Tamia Stanton, Bedford County Listening Project leader.

The Bedford County Listening Project has reached out to and met with city and county officials for months but say the solutions they put forward – and their voices - have been ignored.

The press conference will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21 at Bedford County Square North, Shelbyville.

About the Bedford County Listening Project

Shelbyville is a small town 50 miles south of Nashville and was the site of a large Nazi rally in October 2017, just after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In response to white supremacists descending on the town, community members came together to build unity and to address the concerns of working families – of all backgrounds – in this rural county and the Bedford County Listening Project was born. The Bedford County Listening Project is working to create a voice for struggling families in Bedford County and to change policies and laws that have hurt the town and its residents.