“Alex Santos didn’t expect to be homeless before he was 30. Then, in the past few years, the 28-year-old lost his job, his wife and his home all in a row — the pillars of his life falling like dominoes.

He’s one of hundreds who have found help at the Interactive Resource Center, a homeless day shelter in downtown Greensboro partially funded by Guilford County.

But under a suggested $4.1 million in cuts to the county’s Human Services budget, Guilford would end funding for the center…”

I contacted IRC director Liz Seymour to ask what percentage of the center’s funding comes from the County, and how losing funding will affect the day center. Here’s Liz’s response:

The article was not entirely accurate–the County isn’t cutting existing funding, but it is cutting a funding request out of the proposed budget. There are some real and important issues at stake and we would love to have your help and support. The Commissioners will hold a series of budget hearings starting tonight and finishing with a county-wide hearing on Thursday, May 3 at 5:30 at the Commissioners Meeting Room in the Old Courthouse. It’s not just about the IRC, it’s all the groups out there who are helping more and more people with less and less support.

Our total budget is about $400,000 of which roughly half comes from individual gifts; the rest is largely from foundations, churches and a little bit from civic groups and businesses. (And honestly, although our budget is $400,000 we’re operating on an austerity budget that comes in a lot closer to $300,000–not sustainable, but necessary at the moment).

In 2009 the County allocated $275,000 for renovation of the building we are now in but we have never received any operating funds from the County. We put in a request last year through the CBO (Community Based Organization) process and were denied; we have applied again this year as a CBO with a request for $25,000 but once again are not in the budget. We do not receive regular funding from the City either, though this year we will be eligible to apply for a slice of Community Development Block Grant money, a federal pass-through that the City administers (it’s worth noting that the CDBG is a very small pie and everyone’s slice comes out pretty thin)

Because government funding at every level (local, state and federal) is in such jeopardy these days we have not built our long-range strategy around it. Our greatest growth at the moment is in individual gifts–this year fully half of our giving has come from first-time donors, which indicates to me that when people understand what we are doing they want to support it. The rule of thumb for philanthropy is that 70-80 percent of giving comes from individual donors; at the moment for us it’s a little under 50 percent. One of our biggest needs is simply to get the word out!

That said, anything we can do to persuade the County Commissioners to allocate funds to the IRC would be huge. At the most practical level the funds we have requested would pay for almost a month of operations. On a civic level Paul Gibson is absolutely right: ‘They’re doing the work the county’s not doing.’ And we’re saving the entire county a lot of money too…

>> Have a look at Guilford County’s Human Services FY 2012-2013 Recommended Budget Info here. Dates of budget meetings, work sessions and the public hearing; as well as links to all parts of the recommended budget, here.

>> Learn more about the great work that the Interactive Resource Center is doing to help the homeless! Make a donation online. Connect with the IRC on Facebook and Twitter. And help spread the word! The IRC provides much-needed services to people who are homeless, formerly homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Get involved!

“Elizabeth Link, the city’s urban designer, created the landscape design for the park. Downtown Greensboro Inc. set in motion the plan to upgrade the park. Link and Ed Wolverton, president of Downtown Greensboro, were on hand for the plan’s unveiling.

Wolverton created a small task force from nearby businesses to get ideas for the design and said Wednesday that there was considerable debate over whether to include benches in the park.

They decided against it, partly because of the added cost, and because the benches would have to be stabilized in the ground, which might interfere with fiber optic cables running beneath the land.

But another reason was over concerns that homeless people would take over the benches and the park itself, making it undesirable for pedestrians. That’s a constant problem throughout downtown.”

Maybe that shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. I thought Greensboro was a town known for not discriminating against people. But I guess it’s still OK to discriminate against homeless people. Here’s the thing, though. A public park is public. That means that anyone can use it. DGI is worried about pedestrians. Most homeless people are pedestrians. Homeless people have a right to sit on benches, just like anyone else.

DGI is either going to have to accept that there will always be homeless people downtown, or they need to find a way to move services elsewhere. The homeless shelters, soup kitchen, day center, mental health center, health clinic, free meal sites, library, bus depot and more are all downtown. Unless shelter and services for homeless people are moved elsewhere, there will always be homeless people downtown. And they are and will continue to be members of the public, and entitled to use any public facilities. And they shouldn’t be discriminated against. For shame, DGI.

Update: Discussion at Ed Cone’s blog.

From a press release dated 02/27/2012:

Mary’s House owns and operates a shelter and transitional living facility on Guilford Avenue in Greensboro. The Mary’s House shelter provides housing and services to homeless women recovering from substance abuse and their children. Between 2005 and 2010, Mary’s House applied for and received federal Emergency Shelter Grants Program funds from the State. In 2010 and again in 2011, however, the State denied Mary’s House’s application for Emergency Shelter Grants funds.

The lawsuit asserts the State’s decision to stop funding Mary’s House is discriminatory and illegal under federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Fair Housing Act, all of which prohibit the State from denying federal funds, housing, or services on the basis of disability. It alleges the State has targeted one disability – recovery from substance abuse – and has decided that shelters that serve homeless persons who have that particular disability are ineligible to apply for federal funds. The lawsuit also alleges that the State’s decision violates the Constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. Mary’s House and its residents are asking the Federal District Court to award them damages and to prohibit the State from continuing to deny funding to Mary’s House because of the disability of the Mary’s House residents.

>> Read Press Release, 02/27/2012
>> Read Lawsuit, filed 02/17/2012

“Decisions about the homeless have, for years in Forsyth County, been made mostly by well-meaning people who have never spent a night on the street. Today, a group of homeless and formerly homeless people will try to change that. The Homeless Caucus, a group formed by the community-organizing group CHANGE, called a public meeting tonight to ask for two voting seats on the executive board of the Homeless Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.”

Good for them! The ONLY experts on homelessness are those who’ve experienced it! It makes no sense for never-homeless individuals to create plans and policy for homeless people without the active involvement of currently and/or formerly homeless people at every stage of the process.

>> Read all of Homeless Want Seats on Coalition Board…

The harsh words and hard hearts reveal the truth — the concern is not for the poor and any negative effects government assistance programs may have on them, it’s for the pocketbooks of those who oppose them! If they were truly concerned about the poor, they would be spending their energy advocating for positive change and accountability for government assistance programs — not trying to dismantle them! (For those who argue that the government shouldn’t be involved in helping the poor, they would be spending their energy advocating for effective private programs to help the poor — not just trying to end them!)

God is not fooled by any of this. Those who ridicule, scorn and ignore the plight of the poor also mock and blaspheme God! And they dig their own graves. God’s Word is clear. He is the defender of the poor!

“Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who rejoice at the misfortune of others will be punished.”
– Proverbs 17:5

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.”
– Proverbs 19:17

“Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.”
– Proverbs 21:2

“He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.”
– Proverbs 28:27

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
– Matthew 6:19-21

“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
– Matthew 25:41-46

“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
– 1 Timothy 6:10

The Greensboro Housing Authority has had its maintenance budget cut for the first time in its history.

Congressional budget cuts have taken $1 million out of the budget, which is 25 percent of the entire maintenance budget, said Don House, chief operating officer for the Greensboro Housing Authority.

The cuts come despite a backlog of repairs that will cost $16 million to fix, House said.

Rent will not increase because that is based on renters’ income and not the authority’s budget, House said.

That puts the authority in the tough position of choosing which projects to fund and which ones to put on hold.

>> Continue reading “Public Housing Maintenance Budget Cut 25 Percent in Greensboro” (with video)

“A new study says that drug treatment courts, which state legislators cut funding for in the recent budget, are effective at reducing crime and drug use.

Drug courts also saved an average of nearly $5,700 per participant, resulting in a net benefit of $2 for every $1 spent, according to the study released Tuesday by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C. The Center for Court Innovation in New York and RTI International in the Research Triangle Park assisted with the study.

This year, North Carolina legislators cut $2 million in funding for drug treatment courts across the state…”

>> Continue reading “Study: Drug courts effective in reducing” at News-Record.com.

I’ve seen first-hand the effectiveness of Guilford County’s drug court. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to cut programs that save taxpayer dollars and change lives.

“The Social Security Administration (SSA) has proposed changes to the way decisions are made for awarding disability benefits based on a mental impairment. These changes will threaten the ability of people with serious mental illnesses to obtain benefits….

The changes appear in a regulation that would amend the “Medical Listings” -the standards that SSA uses to determine eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. While the proposed new Listings include some very good features, these are undermined by a provision that could limit the number of people with mental illnesses who can qualify to only one or two percent of the nation’s population. This is far below even the most conservative estimate of the number whose mental health disability makes them unable to work (the criterion for eligibility for federal disability benefits) and who therefore need this monthly income.”

~ Read all of “Social Security Disability Rules to Change – for Better and Worse: Agency Needs to Hear from You” — then, take action!

Tim Clontz, VP, Moses Cone (image source: mosescone.com)

Moses Cone Health System and High Point Regional Health System want to continue providing care to underserved adults and children in Guilford County and have been negotiating a contract to do so for two years.

Recognizing the tough economic environment we have suggested a 33% reduction ($500,000) in the county’s contribution for the care of indigent adults. We will continue caring for children with the same level of county funding. The contribution currently made by the county is less than what the county loss on these same clinics when the county ran them as a part of the Health Department over 13 years ago. Since being run by the health systems, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of children seen and specialty clinics added.

Moses Cone Health System alone provided $125.4 million (at our cost) of uncompensated care last fiscal year. This includes $3.5 million dollars, which MCHS and HPRHS have paid to subsidize the operations of Guilford Child Health and Guilford Adult Health.

Guilford County’s refusal to pay its share of the cost of caring for indigent adults only shifts the cost from all county taxpayers to those who have insurance in the form of higher medical bills.

» Previously.

I thank Tim for the information, and for what he, personally, does to help us help homeless people in our community access health care. More here, here, and here. Thanks, Tim.