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 Program helps prevent homelessness by assisting 180 people with rent, mortgage, utility bills, clothing and food.
• Partnership Village provides 68 transitional apartments with support services to formerly homeless families and individuals working toward self-sufficiency.
• Weaver House provides safe, secure emergency housing for 100 homeless adults. WE! (Winter Emergency) Program helps provide shelter for an additional 100 homeless men and women in the winter at several satellite locations.
• Pathways Center provides emergency housing for 16 homeless families. And Beyond Pathways, our Housing First program, rapidly rehouses 20 homeless families from the emergency shelter. Both programs provide extensive support services leading to permanent, stable housing.
• Volunteer Services has 123 actively involved volunteers giving freely of their time by preparing meals, interviewing clients, and performing various other activities.
• The Chaplaincy Program ensures that 70 guests, staff and volunteers receive spiritual food.

The Madeline B. McElveen Child Development Center provides quality childcare for the 160 children, ranging in age from toddlers on up, who live in the Partnership Village neighborhood.

» Visit Greensboro Urban Ministry’s web site for details on these ministries, to find out how to donate and volunteer, and to learn about current fundraising events that you can attend. Also, join Greensboro Urban Ministry on Facebook.

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 older (oldest 67)

• 75% black
• 21% white
• 5% other

• 25% chronically homeless (unaccompanied disabled individual who has been continuously homeless for over one year)
• 11% veterans (23)

• 56% cited unemployment as the cause of their homelessness

The men’s winter shelter locations (# of people sheltered):

• First Presbyterian Church (20)
• Pleasant Garden Baptist Church (20)
• West Market Street Methodist Church (15)
• Mt. Zion Baptist Church (15)
• FaithStep Ministries (11)

The women’s winter shelter locations (# of people sheltered):

• Grace Community Church (15)
• First Baptist Church (10)

» Read more about the operation of the shelters in “Press Release, Report on 2009-10 Greensboro Urban Ministry Winter Emergency (WE) Shelters”

Vincent Sims used to sleep under the Lee Street bridge. He spent some of his Social Security money on drugs and booze. Banned from city shelters for schizophrenia- and drug-fueled outbursts, he sometimes got arrested just to have a warm, safe place to spend a few hours. And when he got out of jail, he’d go right back to sleeping by the train tracks or in abandoned buildings. Then one day last year, the Rev. Mike Aiken approached him with an offer: a no-strings-attached apartment through a new Guilford County program…

I met Vincent years ago. He is one of dozens of my friends who has moved off the street and into a home in the past year through the new housing program.

…The housing support team, a partnership between Family Service of the Piedmont, the Greensboro Housing Coalition and Open Door Ministries with help from local social service agencies, started searching for homeless residents in mid-2007.

“They had to be someone who is cycling through the system a lot,” said Mitch McGee, the housing support team coordinator. “In and out of jail, in and out of the hospital.”

Folks who continue to live on the street no matter how many times police pick them up or nonprofits feed them a hot meal. Folks like Reid James.

In the summer of 2006, James, a 47-year-old who suffers from bipolar disorder and depression, ran out of friends willing to take her in….

» Read “Can a home save the homeless?,” online at the News & Record
» Printable PDF of article
» See a slideshow of Vincent’s photos here.

Reporter Amanda Lehmert doesn’t address the program’s major flaw — serious problems with the availability and delivery of supportive services — a fundamental component of the program, and a necessity for the long-term success of the program’s participants.  YES! Weekly’s Jordan Green reported on that issue earlier in his 09/24/2008 article, “Formerly homeless clients find services lacking.”  Jordan interviewed some of the same folks that Amanda did, and my friend Reid James is featured in both newspaper’s articles.

I’d suggest reading both articles to get a fuller perspective on the housing support program — the good and the not-so-good.  I’m thankful for the program, but I want to see all the supportive services issues addressed so that our friends can truly experience recovery, health and wholeness.  Housing alone will not end homelessness.