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I’ve asked the question on my blog and to journalists, county staff and Commissioners: Who decided which CBOs to fund and which to cut in the 2007-2008 budget? Billy Yow did return my call and talked to me a bit about it, but I got the best answer when I picked up a Rhino this evening and read Scott Yost’s article, “Gang of Six Takes Control of the County.” About the CBO funding for human services, Yost says:

Read more on Yost Answers My Funding Question In The Rhino…

Earlier, I posted about Guilford County Commissioners’ budget cuts to a family homeless shelter and three residential drug treatment programs and the $1.4 million in community-based organization (CBO) funding that wasn’t cut, and I wondered about how the decisions were made on which programs to fund. Commissioner Billy Yow returned my phone call Friday afternoon and we talked about CBO funding.

Read more on Talking To Billy Yow About CBOs…

From the new blog of the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness:

“Often, agencies providing shelter to the homeless don’t realize that they fall under the Fair Housing Law or the American Disabilities Act. But in fact, whether you are providing short or long term shelter, chances are one of these laws apply to you.”

In order to be compliant with the law, shelter staff must give disabled persons access to programs, and cannot use questions about disability (physical or mental illness, including alcoholism) during the intake process to screen a person out of the program — but, after accepting the disabled person into the housing program, shelter staff may then ask questions about disability, in order to determine service needs and offer reasonable accommodations. The article also discusses the difference between “reasonable accommodations” and fundamental program changes. Much more in the article, including links to further resources.

Read more on Fair Housing Laws & Homeless Shelters…

“We Christians must pray for our nation and its people. Our love for our Saviour and our neighbour demands nothing less than fervent, united prayer. Such prayer needs focus. We need to see things not as the world sees them, but as God sees them. We have to filter our experiences through the word of God, not the other way around, so we pray with the mind of God. On top of that, our prayer has to be more than: ‘Lord, do something!’ It needs to be: ‘Lord, what can I do?’ Or as Isaiah said, ‘Here I am, send me.’ It is said, ‘When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.’ From what Christian Voice has seen, we know that when we do both, God works miracles. That is good, as it will need a miracle for our sad, dysfunctional nation to turn from its belief that mankind knows best and to trust in God again. What was written 3,000 years ago is still true: ‘Blessed is that nation, whose God is the Lord.’ (Psalm 33:12)

Read more on Send Me…

Today’s News & Record has an editorial defending the cuts to non-profits that County Commissioners made in the new 2007-2008 budget, including cuts to community-based organizations such as a family homeless shelter and three residential drug treatment programs:

Read more on The $1.4 Million Commissioners DID Give To Non-Profits…

Cardwell C. Nuckols, Ph.D. speaks to treatment providers about crack cocaine, crack addiction, and crack addicts. Nuckols gives a compelling and thought-provoking look through the perspective of the crack addict.

There are audio gaps in a few places (present in the original recording) and the recording ends a few moments before Nuckols’ talk did. Those flaws aside, this audio recording is an excellent resource for revealing truth about crack cocaine and crack addiction.

Read more on What You Need To Hear About Crack Cocaine…

Above: Guilford County Board of Commissioners Chair Paul Gibson on Monday, June 4, 2007, at GTCC, where he joined Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday and others in welcoming United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano (not pictured here) for the unveiling of Guilford County’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.

Read more on Picturing Paul Gibson…

Last Friday, I posted about the $30,000 cut that the Guilford County Commissioners made to the Pathways family homeless shelter budget. Since then, I’ve learned that was only a part of the sad, baffling story. The Commissioners also cut funding for three residential treatment programs.

Read more on County Cuts Funding For Residential Treatment Programs…

Homelessness Affects Children’s Health

Compared to children with homes, homeless children have:

• Twice the rate of respiratory infections
• Twice the rate of tuberculosis
• Six times the risk of stunted growth
• Seven times the risk of anemia

Read more on How Homelessness Affects Children…

“For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
– 1 Timothy 6:7-10

Read more on For The Love Of Money…

Update, 07/01/07: Read this post to see how God is returning (more abundantly) what commissioners took away. Praise God!

On Thursday, June 21st, the Guilford County Commissioners voted to cut funding for a number of local non-profits. One of those non-profits is an emergency shelter for homeless families. The Commissioners voted to eliminate funding for The Pathways Center, a housing program of Greensboro Urban Ministry. Pathways lost $30,000 in funding.

Read more on County Cuts Funding For Homeless Families…

Below are excerpts from a newly released report, “Homeless Voices: Opinions of the Poor and Homeless in Civic Conversations,” a community-based research project by UNCG Department of Communication Studies Professor Spoma Jovanovic, Ph.D., and students Jill Eversole, Anna Simanovich, Ashley Tedder, and Trey Woody. The full report (17 pages, PDF) is available online here, and I hope that you’ll read it all.

Read more on Report: “Homeless Voices” (In Greensboro)…