Jimmy is 69 years old. He’s worked all his life, and is a military veteran, but now, at retirement age, he is living in a tent in the woods.
Read more on Video: Jimmy, homeless in Greensboro…
“Taser the homeless.”
Word is spreading about that disturbing suggestion, which came from an unidentified woman who owns or works for a business on South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro. She attended a problem-solving meeting on May 18th with District 3 Council rep Zack Matheny and City staff, to discuss parking-related issues in the 300 block of South Elm Street.
Read more on So you heard about the chick who wants to taser the homeless downtown?…
From News-Record.com, 04/20/2009:
image credit: Joseph Rodriguez, News & Record
No injuries were reported when a fire broke out in a trailer today.
The fire was reported about 12:20 p.m. Monday in an empty mobile home at 1727 W. Lee St., about a block east of the Greensboro Coliseum.
Read more on Another homeless fire?…
photo credit: irrezolut
From an instant message conversation with my best friend and ministry partner, Audrie Keen, thinking about yesterday when we were at the Salvation Army store, loading the truck for NightWatch, street outreach to the homeless:
Read more on Dirty hands like Jesus…
(l) What's missing? (r) Where are the benches?
This morning, Audrie and I left Green Bean and walked across the street to Panhandler’s Park to sit and plan what all we had to do today to get ready for NightWatch tonight. But when we walked up the sidewalk, I noticed right away that something was missing — all the benches were gone! That little patch of green at Elm and McGee was nicknamed “Panhandler’s Park” for a reason. Is the City practicing a little reverse hospitality? I guess there’s more than one way to discourage panhandling.
Read more on What’s missing from Panhandler’s Park?…
On NightWatch; 2nd stop, 1st fight; biggest group I’ve seen at that camp area; new faces; tense truce as we left; at another camp now
Sent this message to our NightWatch team today:
The WE program emergency winter shelter ended today. NightWatch should see more people on the street from now through next winter. The number of unsheltered homeless people has increased dramatically from last year. Greensboro Urban Ministry is seeing an increase of 30-40% in people seeking a shelter bed and Mike Aiken emphasized to me that these are NEW homeless people, not chronic folks rotating through the shelter. The WE program housed over 100 people. A number of those folks are moving into transitional or permanent housing, but the majority of them do not have housing, as far as I know, and we will likely see them back outside as we do street outreach.
Read more on NightWatch expects to see more homeless on street…
winter shelter ends, 2008
03/15/2008: “The cold weather shelter programs at both homeless shelters ended yesterday…”
Every year, Greensboro Urban Ministry and Salvation Army open winter emergency overflow programs, in addition to their year-round shelter beds, to keep homeless people from freezing to death sleeping outside. And every year, those winter shelter programs close as winter ends. Salvation Army closes winter shelter on March 15th. Greensboro Urban Ministry closes winter shelter when the dangerous temperatures end. Every year, homeless people go back outside as the weather warms up.
Read more on WE shelters increase awareness that winter shelter does end…
Driving to Community Dinner at Grace, a train passed by on the bridge over my head at Fulton Street. I knew that James would be seeing it soon. It always makes me feel connected to him when I watch the trains go by on the way to the bridge where he lives. (Same bridge Pete and Ricky used to live under.) Later, downtown at the Green Bean, I stopped in the doorway on the way in to watch a train leaving the station, heading out of town, and again thought, “James will be seeing that train soon.”
Read more on Watching trains and thinking about James…
A homeless man, Ronald Wrenn, was hit by a car on Friday night while crossing South Eugene Street on his way to the Salvation Army Center of Hope’s emergency overflow night shelter. He died shortly afterward** at Moses Cone Hospital. I found out just after it happened from our church’s outreach director, Marshall, who’d talked to the downtown cops that we do street outreach with. They’d just been at the scene of the accident. I went by the hospital later to check on him and found out that he’d died. Family members had already been notified. I had posted a message to Facebook earlier, asking all our friends to pray for him, but I waited to blog about it because the information had not yet been released to the public. It was posted on the web site of the News & Record a little while ago, so I’m posting it now, too.
Read more on Homeless man struck and killed by car on his way to shelter…
On Wednesday, January 28th, the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County conducted its annual Point in Time Count, a nation-wide count of the homeless mandated by the Department of Housing and Development. The yearly census, conducted over a 24-hour period each January, helps determine the funding that each community receives from the government to provide services and housing for homeless people. The count begins early and continues into the night, with counts done at shelters, transitional housing facilities, meal locations, and on the street.
Read more on Counting the homeless: 2009…
A few weeks ago, I got a message from a reporter friend that GPD was going to do training exercises with explosives at the Coliseum Inn. The reporter asked if I knew where the residents had gone and if the City had made accommodations for them. I messaged a police officer friend who was online. He’s a member of GPD’s Special Response Team, and he told me that yes, indeed, he was going to be blowing some stuff up at the Coliseum Inn the next day. He was pretty excited. (Me, too. And jealous. Why don’t I get to do cool stuff like that?) I said that I assumed that meant all the residents were out of the hotel? And he said, “Yeah, I guess so. I think they’ve been out.” I was a little surprised. I hadn’t heard anything about the hotel residents leaving. Apparently, my reporter friend hadn’t either.
Read more on Quiet dispersal of Coliseum Inn residents goes mostly unnoticed…