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PRESS RELEASE

Jehan Benton-Clark
For Immediate Release
336.553.2715 (O)
336.215.1295 (M)
Jehan@PartnersEndingHomelessness.org

State of Homelessness in Guilford County

Guilford County, NC—March 22, 2010– Homelessness has become a national issue of significant proportion with over 300 cities and counties across the country implementing plans to address this human tragedy.  In Guilford County, the Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative focuses on actively implementing, evaluating and updating Guilford County’s Ten Year Plan which is aimed at improving the quality of life for all residents of Guilford County by ending chronic homelessness and reducing all types of homelessness by 2016. The Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative focuses on generating housing and strengthening prevention & supportive services.
Read more on State of Homelessness in Guilford County: March 2010…

Read more on State of Homelessness in Guilford County: March 2010…

Be sure to read Lorraine Ahearn’s News & Record article, “Benches highlight a bigger problem”, which begins like this:

“The location of artistic benches, which were removed from the Downtown Greenway on Friday after neighbors complained, looked good on paper but ignored some basic urban topography. Just a stone’s throw from where the benches were removed, amid complaints that they drew drunken and lewd behavior, sits ‘The Block.’ At the southwest corner of Eugene and Lee streets, at the entrance to HealthServe clinic and Greensboro Urban Ministry’s night shelter, this stretch of sidewalk has been a magnet for loitering, drugs and prostitution for 20 years….”

The benches were never the problem, so removing them won’t solve it. The problem on the block is primarily addiction. People drink there, and buy and smoke pot and crack. And where you find crack, you find dealers and prostitutes.

Read more on Bilbro benches gone, next target: homeless on the block?…

From Partners Ending Homelessness and the City of Greensboro:

You are invited to CELEBRATE news of a generous gift to the Community Foundation for a new Day Center in Greensboro as a component of the ten year plan to end chronic homelessness in Guilford County.

Read more on Greensboro Day Center News Conference & MAJOR Gift Announcement!…

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.  However, as part of the program, they were promised supportive services, such as treatment for addiction disorders and mental illness, and they are supposed to have the help and assistance of “enhanced providers” in obtaining needed services.  But that has not been the reality for many of my friends, and they have suffered as a result.

Read more on Article exposes problems with homeless housing initiative…

On Thursday afternoon, I went by to see friends on the block, at Lee and Eugene, and to let them know about dinner at the HIVE.   One of my friends asked for help for his friend, who had just gotten out of the hospital.  He’d had major surgery, and then been discharged back to the street, to the bridge where he’s lived for years.  He has no job and no income, and was trying to find a way to get his medication, including the antibiotic to keep him from getting a post-surgical infection.

Read more on Homeless: Discharged to the street in Greensboro…

I talked to a friend about his thoughts on the structure for the proposed day center for homeless people in Greensboro.  My friend suggests that for every day center task force member who is “paid to care,” that there be a member who is not paid to care, to balance it out.  He suggested using the same approach for other committees working on the day center concept.  He commented that he, for example, would have no interest in serving on a funding committee, but that we could find someone else who is not paid to care who would want to serve in that way.  I agree with his ideas.

Read more on Not paid to care…

Picked up the donated coffee from Port City Java (thank you!) and juice from our supplies at Salvation Army and then got to the HIVE. Lenslinger from Fox8 was there and Amanda Lehmert from News & Record. But not many homeless folks. So Tim and I went and got Grace’s van and headed to the library to pick up some folks. We got back with a vanful and Marsha was pulling up with some recently housed friends. Pastor Willis Johnson (Shiloh Baptist) was providing an update on the day center committee’s progress when we came in. Dianne Bellamy-Small is here. Ed Whitfield is going to facilitate the discussion.

Q. “Is the voice of the [currently/formerly] people… going to be heard?”

Pastor Johnson gave a very long answer that started with acknowledging that homeless people will not have a vote on everything and won’t like every decision. Pastor Johnson used the phrase, “going from a movement to an institution,” which, quite frankly, sounds my alarm bells, and “those who are our neighbors, those who are indigenous to this reality,” which I think means, “homeless people.” Referring to the structure committee’s suggestions for the make-up of the board, and having a certain number of homeless people on the board, he said, “Those are all things that we’re going to have to have real conversations about.”

Read more on Liveblog: Day center meeting at the HIVE…

Blankets, clothing and other items left out in the open by homeless people who sleep outside at Grace Community Church are stacked beside the dumpster a few days before it’s scheduled to be emptied, giving them a chance to retrieve their things.

My church, Grace Community on West Lee Street, is struggling with how to answer the question: How do we love our homeless neighbors? Grace is known for serving the poor and homeless. We have a weekly community dinner for the homeless, a financial assistance ministry, a permanent supportive housing ministry (moving people from homelessness to housing), and a yearly Christmas Banquet for our homeless friends.  We have members involved in urban mission projects, street outreach ministries, the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, the homeless coalition, the day center initiative, as well as close friendships with homeless and formerly homeless people. But one of the biggest struggles that our church faces is how to love and serve the homeless neighbors who sleep on our church property every night. (It’s not just the sleeping that’s a problem. It’s the mental health and addiction issues, sanitation problems, liability concerns, sex offenders sleeping at a place frequented by children, etc. But that’s another post.)

Read more on My church struggles with how to love our homeless neighbors…

A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about the reaction to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless’ plans to give free movie tickets and bus passes to homeless people during the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver. The next day, I received an email through my web site’s contact form, which begins:

Read more on Post about the DNC and Denver’s homeless gets a response…

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:

Read more on Making an economic case for housing the homeless…

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 estate of Nancy Richmond Hudson.

Read more on Greensboro Urban Ministry to begin housing program for homeless families thanks to $1 million bequest…

I’ve been busy doing instead of writing lately, so here’s a little update on local homeless news.

Last night, I attended the third of four planned registration dinner meetings at HealthServe for homeless people without income or health benefits. These have been going really well and a number of those who have attended and registered have already seen a doctor and received medications. Because they are homeless and without income, and they attended a registration dinner, they qualified to have their appointment and prescription fees waived. Awesome. A big “thank you!” to the HealthServe staff and to Moses Cone for making this happen.

Read more on Homeless News Update, 04/25/08…