Django can't find my template directory even though it's configured in settings?

I'm trying to use an HTML template for django mail module. MY current issue is that I'm getting this error:

django.template.exceptions.TemplateDoesNotExist

when I try to render HTML inside my app called users:

html = render_to_string('email/email_confirm.html', context)

Here is my folder layout, my app is called users, my project settings live in /core. My templates are located in BASE_DIR.

Here is my templates code in settings:

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
                'social_django.context_processors.backends',
                'social_django.context_processors.login_redirect',
            ],
        },
    },
]

How can I get Django to properly find the templates folder? I have all my apps hooked up and data is working fine. This is strictly a templates path issue.

EDIT: I have kept my APP_DIRS = True and moved the templates/email folder inside the users application folder.

Still django is not finding the template?

Here is the View.py in question:

class CustomUserCreate(APIView):
    permission_classes = [AllowAny]

    def post(self, request, format='json'):
        serializer = CustomUserSerializer(data=request.data)

        if serializer.is_valid():
            user = serializer.save()
            if user:
                # GENERATE EMAIL CONFIRMATION TOKEN
                user_data = serializer.data
                user = User.objects.get(email=user_data['email'])

                token = RefreshToken.for_user(user).access_token

                # GENERATE EMAIL CONFIRMATION TEMPLATE
                current_site = get_current_site(request).domain
                relative_link = reverse('users:email-verify')


                # CHANGE TO HTTPS in PRODUCTION
                absurl = 'http://'+current_site+relative_link+"?token="+str(token)
                email_body = 'Hi '+ user.username+', Please use link below to verify your email \n' + absurl

                context = {
                    'name': user.first_name,
                }
                html = render_to_string('email/email_confirm.html', context)
                text = render_to_string(email_body, context)


                data = {'to_email':user.email,
                        'email_subject': 'Verify your email',
                        'email_body':email_body,
                        'message':text,
                        'html_message':html
                }


                Util.send_email(data)

                return Response(user_data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

EDIT 2: First I tried doing this:

template = get_template('email/email_confirm.html', { 'name': user.first_name})

I got TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict' as an error for the above.

Then I switched it around doing this:

absurl = 'http://'+current_site+relative_link+"?token="+str(token)
email_body = 'Hi '+ user.username+', Please use link below to verify your email \n' + absurl

context = {
    'name': user.first_name,
}

template = get_template('email/email_confirm.html')

email = render_to_string(template, context)


data = {'to_email':user.email,
        'email_subject': 'Verify your email',
        'email_body':email_body,
        'html_message':email
}


Util.send_email(data)

Which lead to this error:

    raise TypeError(f'{funcname}() argument must be str, bytes, or '
TypeError: join() argument must be str, bytes, or os.PathLike object, not 'Template'

final edit:

                data = {'to_email':user.email,
                        'email_subject': 'Please Verify Your Email',
                        'email_body':email_body,
                        'html_message':html
                }

from Django can't find my template directory even though it's configured in settings?