Task Force To Ask County’s Help In Implementing Plan To End Homelessness

The Guilford County Task Force to End Homelessness met yesterday, five months after publicly presenting a Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in our community. Since the June presentation, there has been little progress on implementing the plan, and there has been some confusion over who would be responsible for administration and funding of the elements of the plan. Some Task Force members had hoped that the United Ways of Greensboro and High Point would administer the plan. Many United Way agencies across the state and nation are taking the lead in implementing local plans to end homelessness. But at yesterday’s meeting, the Task Force’s leadership committee instead proposed that the Guilford County Planning Department hire staff and take responsibility for championing and overseeing implementation of the plan.

According to Neil Belenky, president of the United Way of Greater Greensboro, the United Ways would be willing to “take on fundraising,” but that commitment would apparently be limited to the first few years of implementation. Carole Bruce, chairwoman of the Task Force, said that the objective would be to raise private support for 2-3 years and then use data to show the plan’s success and get county funding for the remainder of the 10-year period. Bruce said, “It is envisioned that it would be so successful that it would be the obvious role of the county to take it forward.”

I raised a concern about using tax dollars to fund a staff position. Earlier this year, the Guilford County Commissioners cut funding to a number of community-based organizations, including some non-profits that served the homeless, and there was discussion of continuing those cuts in the future. These are programs which already have data that shows their effectiveness, and yet, they were still cut. In light of that, I wondered if we could expect the county to fund a staff position for homelessness in the future, even if we have the data to support it. Bruce’s response was “We need to change that mindset… make doing the right thing a little more acceptable.”

I was one of several Task Force members who expressed disappointment in the United Ways’ decision not to be the administrators for the plan. (One Task Force member used the word “betrayed.”) Mike Aiken, executive director of the Greensboro Urban Ministry said, “I think it would be more powerful if the United Ways could take on the leadership.” He noted that the county could be in a difficult position when it comes to doing advocacy. Others also voiced support for the United Ways taking the lead. But when I asked directly if there was still a chance that they would consider doing it, none of the United Way folks in the room responded and Bruce said, “I won’t say that I heard ‘No way’,” but then continued with a long answer that could be summed up as “No.”

Consultant Nancy Hunter reminded the Task Force that the most important group and the “owner” of the plan would be the leadership council, not the agency or organization where the staff works, and that we would need to make it clear to the community that the plan is not being given away to anyone. It will still belong to the Task Force and leadership council. Bruce suggested that as times goes on, if we see that the arrangement with the county is not working out, we can make changes. She also stressed that if the Task Force doesn’t implement the plan, we will lose funding opportunities.

Belenky emphasized that the housing support team that is now providing permanent supportive housing to chronically homeless individuals in Greensboro and High Point would not have been funded by the state if we hadn’t had a Ten Year Plan in progress. Steve Key of Open Door Ministries in High Point commented that the Task Force needs a mechanism in place to be able to tap into resources for homelessness that are coming from the state and federal government.

The next step in the process is for Guilford County Planning Director Greg Niles to take the idea back to the County for approval — which, I assume, means the Commissioners. Stay tuned…

>> See also “County may run homeless plan,” News & Record, 11/14/2007

Billy The Blogging Poet says:

November 14, 2007 at 12:52 pm

“Since the June presentation, there has been little progress on implementing the plan, and there has been some confusion over who would be responsible for administration and funding of the elements of the plan.”

Seems like I remember several local politricksters who recently used the 10 Year Plan as flowers in their campaign hats. I guess those hats are now out of season.

I can think of lots of great ways to solve area homeless issues but alas no one wants to hear what I think. I even know of a huge pot of money but the greedy developers have other plans. I hope the 10 Year Plan works out but as with most things political I have little hope that anything will change for the better.

cmf says:

November 14, 2007 at 1:17 pm

There are a lot of people who strongly support the ideas in the plan, but as with most plans, it will take money to implement it, and that’s hard to come by these days, with both public and private dollars shrinking even as the needs increase. The irony is that by implementing the plan, we could likely save taxpayer dollars over the long-term.

Brenda Bowers says:

November 14, 2007 at 3:17 pm

I too hate to see this program turned over to the county and another huge bureaucracy with little incentive to do anything but perpetuate itself.

We see it over and over that things get done and work well with a little money when church groups and volunteers are in charge. The President had the right idea by giving these faith based initiatives the funding they needed. Of course that would take a huge pool of money out of the reach of a whole lot of politicians. This is a bad idea made, I would guess, by the same lot of people who haven’t bothered to ask those who have the need (the homeless) what really works and who does the most to help. BB

November 14, 2007 at 5:06 pm

“The irony is that by implementing the plan, we could likely save taxpayer dollars over the long-term.”

You’re right, of course but I find it even more moronic ironic that those in power only realize that when it suits their needs.

In case you can’t tell I’m pretty much sick of politics at every level.

Travis says:

November 15, 2007 at 9:21 am

Michele, I think you did a great job listing the facts of the meeting. It is very disappointing that the United Ways have decided that they don’t want to be a part of the solution after all the great press they received in the beginning. Hopefully the great “ideas” of the plan will not die out and things can begin to move forward soon.

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