Since 1989, Creative Compassion, Inc. has risen to meet the housing needs of our local, rural community in the Upper Cumberland. All of our programs are meant to create & preserve housing opportunities in our community.
Initiatives we have created, continued, and taken part in:
New Home Construction
New Homes: Since 1992, we have built modest new homes for low-income home buyers. In May 2025, we completed & sold our 189th home. Home buyers who build with us gain access to quality, professionally built homes, assistance with obtaining affordable, safe mortgage financing, and down payment assistance. We have contributed over $10 million of new homes sales to our local economies (and this does not account for the increase in values these homes have made over time)!
Mortgage Financing
Since 2017, our staff has been certified to help potential home buyers get approved for a home loan with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). We help those wanting to build a house with us and those wanting to work with their own realtor buy a house already on the market.
Home Repair
Since 2009, agency has helped over 120 households pay for home repairs that keep their homes safe and livable. No pay back grants or low interest affordable loans for Cumberland, Fentress, Overton, Putnam, and White counties have been a consistent source of much needed help for low and very-low income homeowners. This program is only possible through partners like Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, The Home Depot Foundation, VEC, Cumberland County United Fund, and MTNG. We also partner with USDA’s 504 repair program for more sizable repair requests.
Michael Smathers Scholarship
In honor of our Founder, we began a scholarship program with our local Upper Cumberland Tennessee College of Applied Technology. Each year, we make scholarships to those in the residential building trades programs. We are carrying on Mike’s belief of community economic development through investing in our workforce and housing industry.
Rent, Mortgage, & Utility Assistance
In 2022, our Board of Directors saw the community’s need for a housing and utility payment assistance program for those who reach out to us to help them. This program, due to loss of funding, is currently on hold for the remainder of the 2025 year.
COVID-19 Response
One of the great things about being a true grassroots nonprofit is that we can fully dedicate our mission to quickly address community concerns that pop up quickly. Our agency applied for $35,500 in grant funds through the State of Tennessee. We were awarded these funds to help public schools in Cumberland & Fentress counties fight the spread of COVID-19. Through the work with volunteers and school administration in both counties, we were able to supply 17 schools with various supply requests, including: 6,825 mask lanyards & reusable water bottles, 240 touchless hand sanitizer dispensers, over 2,000+ AAA batteries, ADA-compliant water bottle refill stations, desk cough guards, and backpack sanitizer sprayers. These supplies helped 10,000 students and school staff fight against the public spread of the COVID-19 virus. We were glad to be able to quickly incorporate this need into our capabilities.
Rental
We currently do not manage any rental properties. However, we have contributed in other ways: we helped develop 3 affordable housing rental buildings (47 units), each with multiple living units, in partnership with Crossville Housing Authority, who now manages them. In partnership with them, the Azalea, Oakmont, & Teresa Gardens were constructed to provide low cost, supportive housing to elderly & disabled residents.
New Programs
Because we are not tied to a national nonprofit corporation, we are able to focus locally, in real time, where our community needs the most assistance. Currently, we are assessing new ways we could help Cumberland and the surrounding counties. If you have an idea, please consider emailing the Executive Director at director@creativecompassioninc.com
