On Friday night, May 15th, hundreds of area youth are expected to sleep outside at Grace Community Church on Lee Street to raise awareness of homelessness, in an event sponsored by New Jerusalem Cathedral (see video). They will sleep in safety, protected by Greensboro police officers, on the same grounds … > read more
According to the 2009 point in time count of the homeless in Guilford County, conducted by the Homeless Prevention Coalition (HPCGC) on January 28th, there were 130 unsheltered people in the county, only 26 of whom are chronically homeless. Keep in mind that those numbers include both Greensboro and High … > read more
From the News & Record, 01/15/2009: Kenneth Brown keeps the small, red book in his small, cluttered office at the Salvation Army Family Store. He and Nicole “Nikky” Slaughter, his assistant manager, use it to record the names of any new student who comes in for community service after getting … > read more
Question: “Can a home save the homeless?” That’s the title of Amanda Lehmert’s 11/16/2008 News & Record article on the housing support team program — an initiative to move chronically homeless people from the street into housing. Vincent Sims used to sleep under the Lee Street bridge. He spent some … > read more
About a year ago, chronically homeless people in Guilford County began moving from the street into permanent housing, with the help of housing support teams, as part of a state-funded pilot program. Dozens of my homeless friends have moved into housing. That is great and exciting, and I am thankful. … > read more
Random thoughts and updates for this week: 1.) I’m very thankful for the “housing first” initiative that is moving chronically homeless people from the street to permanent housing, but… I’m growing increasingly frustrated with the all-too-frequent staff and program changes among community support providers, as well as the limitations of … > read more
When I go and speak to groups about homelessness, one of the first questions I’m asked is: “Do you know that guy on the bench at Friendly?” His name is Mark, and he’s been called “the true face of homelessness” and “the most visible homeless person in Greensboro.” For residents … > read more
I’ve been busy doing instead of writing lately, so here’s a little update on local homeless news. Last night, I attended the third of four planned registration dinner meetings at HealthServe for homeless people without income or health benefits. These have been going really well and a number of those … > read more
The Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County has released final numbers from the January 2008 point in time count of the homeless. But the totals counted don’t tell the whole story. » View official 2008 homeless count numbers for Guilford County According to the official count, there are 101 chronically … > read more
Giving homeless people housing ends homelessness, but it’s just the beginning of the answer to the crisis of homelessness, because homelessness is not the real problem, it’s just a symptom of the problems that land people on the street. Recently, a number of my chronically homeless friends have moved from … > read more