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Totals for the 2010 Guilford County homeless count (part of the annual, nationwide HUD count) were reported to the state and available on the web as of March 12th, as reported here at ChosenFast.com. Those numbers were officially released to the media today:

Read more on Local homeless count numbers officially released: “Homelessness on rise”…

image credit: News-Record.com/Nelson Kepley

In the city’s path
Saturday, March 6, 2010
By Lorraine Ahearn

GREENSBORO – Two paths converged in a not-so-distant wood this week: the $26 million Downtown Greenway, and a longtime homeless “tent city” in its way.

Read more on “In the city’s path” — Homeless move for Greenway…

FOX8’s Roxanna Haynes came along with me and Derek Dunham on StreetWatch.

On 11/28/2009, the News & Record ran a story about a homeless refugee in Greensboro, quoting State Refugee Coordinator Marlene Myers: “It may be the first case like this.” But it’s probably not.

Read more on Police sergeant finds help for (another) homeless refugee…

I wrote about the guys on the block (and more) for the News & Record: “When there’s nowhere to go,” by Michele Forrest; published Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009.  It’s online here, and reposted below:

On the block. Image credit: Michele Forrest / ChosenFast.com

My ministry partner, Audrie Keen, and I provide a street outreach to the homeless in Greensboro, and we’ve made a lot of friends along the way. We eat together, go to church together and have cookouts. Sometimes our homeless friends stay with us. We visit formerly homeless friends in their homes.

When we say “homeless friends,” we really mean friends.

Two Friday mornings ago, we visited “The Block” at Lee and South Eugene streets. It had been 11 days since my last visit, when we’d talked about the artistic bench installed, then removed, from along the new stretch of the Downtown Greenway in that area. Neighbors said the bench attracted drug addicts and prostitutes.

The guys on The Block dismissed that notion. One said: “The problem is not as serious as they say it is on the news. And the bench has nothing to do with it.”

Read more on When there’s nowhere to go…

From The New York Times:

A man was down, immobile at the edge of one of this city’s busiest intersections. No sirens sounded, no ambulance rushed to the scene. Dealing with the scourge that has consumed Alaska’s biggest city is often delegated to two men in a white van, the Community Service Patrol.

Read more on Deaths spur Anchorage to involuntarily commit homeless alcoholics…

Good editorial in today’s News & Record: “Clearing out The Block”:

Greensboro police last week stepped up loitering enforcement and effectively cleared the place known as “The Block.” Just like that.

Read more on N&R Editorial: Clearing out The Block…

My ministry partner took this photo at the entrance to the Greenway, near the block. Image credit: Audrie Keen

Two days ago, I wrote about “the block” at Lee and Eugene Streets being empty. The block is a long-time gathering spot where folks, many of them homeless, are known to loiter and drink. A friend, who catches a bus just down the sidewalk, had contacted me to tell me that police had cleared everybody out.

Read more on Did it take a Greenway to clear the block?…

"The block" at Lee & Eugene Streest; image credit: News & Record

A friend contacted me yesterday to tell me that police were no longer allowing people to stand on “the block,” a well-known and long-time gathering spot at the corner of Lee and Eugene Streets near the homeless shelter, soup kitchen and health clinic.  Traditionally, most of the people who stood out on the corner were homeless, and many of them spent their time on the block drinking. Today, I received reports from a number of sources with information about what may have led to the clearing of the block.

Read more on Alston meets with residents; Bellamy clears block; day center gets $275K…

Message from a friend today:

haha.. so i have been on the block today.. the fact is..the block isnt the block anymore. the police have taken their trash cans away, and have literally pulled up on the guys up there and told them that they cant stand in front of health serve or the sidewalk anymore. so whatever gpd did, it is taking an affect, bc everyone is talking about how they wont stand on the block anymore bc the popo literally sit across the street..i know its not funny to hear them talking about it..but i say its about damn time. there are alot of ppl who are happy now bc they can actually walk down the sidewalk. im not sure where everyone will be going now, besides the park downtown, and the library///but maybe just maybe, they can turn away from the bottle, and hanging outside all day…well thats the news i have for you…it looks so different up there, without all the guys standing there…

*Popo = police

Read more on Report: Police clearing the block — Greensboro’s homeless hangout…

From the News & Record

A 44-year-old man leaving the Bessemer Curb Market was beaten and robbed by two men Saturday, police said.

About 5:25 p.m., Anthony Brooks was leaving the store at 925 E. Bessemer Ave. when two men approached him, according to Greensboro police.

Read more on Bessemer beating: More homeless on homeless violence in Greensboro…