From Greensboro Urban Ministry: An Average Day at Greensboro Urban Ministry… Potter’s House Community Kitchen serves breakfast, lunch and supper to more than 600 people each day. The Food Bank distributes emergency food orders to 30-50 families and provides 20 non-profits with hundreds of pounds of food. The Emergency Assistance … > read more
According to a report released today, Greensboro’s seven winter emergency shelters collectively hosted 205 people between 12/01/2009 and 03/31/2010. Some demographics about those who stayed in Greensboro’s winter homeless shelters this year: 55 women 150 men 13% age 18-30 years (youngest 18) 72% age 31-55 years 15% 56 years or … > 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
In an ideal world, we’d all do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. But this is the real world, and sometimes people need incentives. Jehan Benton, director of Guilford County’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, talks to the N&R’s Joe Killian: “You can break it down … > read more
From Mike Aiken, executive director, Greensboro Urban Ministry: The Greensboro Urban Ministry Board of Directors approved the start-up of a new program, Beyond Pathways, and the establishment of a new fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, thanks to the receipt of a nearly $1 million bequest from the … > 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
From an email conversation with Mike Aiken, executive director of Greensboro Urban Ministry: “GUM is exploring the feasibility of establishing a Housing First for Homeless Families to help with the long waiting list of families at Pathways… [and] looking for other agency partners as well. As we all know, we … > read more
Greensboro City Council members Goldie Wells and Dianne Bellamy-Small Mayor Yvonne Johnson Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson and City Council members Goldie Wells and Dianne Bellamy-Small, and members of the Community Resource Board joined us at Grace Community Church for the weekly Wednesday Community Fellowship dinner this week. There were around … > read more