CouncilWatch: 17 Oct 2006
posted: October 18, 2006 | category: homelessness, mental health
tags: downtown, Greensboro, housing, police
At last night’s Council meeting:
:: During the public comment time, SCATfighters continued their quest to convince Council to lower proposed increases to bus fares for disabled riders who use SCAT. Emotional appeals seem to have lost some of their effectiveness over the course of this protracted battle, but I found myself nodding along with one speaker who told Council that cuts in state funding for mental healthcare meant that more local funds would be needed for the transition from state to community-based care to be workable. And that includes funding for transportation for the disabled mentally ill. Made sense to me.
SCAT p.s.: FloGat got flowers from a SCATfighter who’s been at odds with her. That drew an “awwww!!” from the audience. And she gave a flower to K-Hol on the way back to her seat. Nice. 
:: October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. (I Google’d. Learn more here.)
:: A new affordable housing community in southeast Greensboro was greenlighted. Located near the new GTCC campus on West Wendover, the new development will feature homes priced from $81.5K-$120K, 50% of which will be built by Habitat and 50% by for-profit builders. One quarter of the site will be left as open space for the community. Greensboro has a large unmet need for affordable housing, so this is good news!
:: Council voted down an annexation that would have altered the character of a close-knit county neighborhood. As one resident put it, “I’d just like to see it stay like it is.” That’s understandable. Change can be hard. Fortunately, Council agreed on this one.
During this discussion, Greensboro fireguy Paul Brooks (officially, GFD Assistant Chief Brooks) spoke about residential sprinkler systems. Did you know that there have been no deaths reported in residential fires in which the homes had correctly working sprinkler systems? Wow… Impressive. When I heard him say that, my next thought was, “What if I have a sprinkler system in my house and I have a fire on the stove in my kitchen? Won’t the sprinklers flood my house and ruin everything?” So when we took a break, I went and asked the fireguys. Brooks’ response: “I’m glad you asked.”
Apparently, my concern was a common one. But Brooks explained that residential sprinkler systems have smart technology. If you have a fire in your kitchen, then only the kitchen sprinkler goes off, not the whole house. And these days, sprinkler systems mist rather than flood, so there’s less damage to the contents of your home. What about cost? Well, less than you might think. With new construction, a sprinkler system would average around $1500. And to retrofit an older home, somewhere around $2,000-4000. That’s a surprisingly small price to pay to have the equivalent of a “firefighter living in your house,” as Brooks put it.
:: Council also considered the South Elm Street Redevelopment Project, which was up for a vote last night. I’ve followed this project with interest, because the area that it encompasses is one that I’ve become familiar with in doing homeless ministry. Over the years, many homeless folks have slept and hung out in the South Elm Street area. As this area begins to be redeveloped, just as with other parts of downtown before it, homeless people are being displaced from their sleeping “spots” and their daytime hang-outs.
I am not opposed to development, but I am concerned that we continue to move people along without seriously considering or planning for where they will go. As my homeless friends themselves have said to me, “We live in Greensboro, too. Everybody always wants us to go somewhere else. But where are we supposed to go?” And nobody seems to have an answer for that. The frustrations of the homeless are real. (Read more here.)
I brought up the “homeless issue” at an earlier meeting about South Elm, and was told that homelessness would be addressed. I never heard anything else about it. It wasn’t mentioned last night either, but the Council got sidetracked by concerns over eminent domain and decided to continue the matter until December. Maybe I can find out between now and then if anyone has given thought to where our homeless friends will go. What’s my solution? We need a day center!! (And yes, this is one of the issues that the Task Force is addressing, but I want to make sure that the mayor, city manager, and Council connect the dots between displacement caused by redevelopment and solutions to chronic homelessness proposed through the upcoming Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.)
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>> Greensboro City Council online (agenda, minutes, video)
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One Response to “CouncilWatch: 17 Oct 2006”
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Good report on the Council Meeting. I watched on TV but didn’t get to the meeting.
Thanks,
diane