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.

03/15/2008: “Those 80 or more homeless people are now back on the street. Where are they sleeping?  Our NightWatch team found that the group of homeless people who met us in the parking lot of Grace Community Church had more than doubled from last week…. When we got to one of the big bridges downtown, we found that the number there had doubled, as well. Our friend JM, who has the spot nearest the path, announced that ‘the bridge is full’ … when we went to check the parking lot of Greensboro Urban Ministry before going home for the night, and we found at least a half dozen people sleeping there, some of them on the concrete right outside the doors of the shelter…”

That was a really difficult night for our outreach team. And unimaginably tougher for our friends on the street.  I feel like I’m reliving it as I re-read that post. There was a lot going on that night. It was complicated. It is this year, too.

Prior to the beginning of winter this year, GUM’s Mike Aiken brought together a group of homeless service providers, emergency management officials and homeless advocates to prepare for an expected increase in the number of homeless people who would need emergency winter shelter vs. the shortage of winter shelter capacity.  That was the beginning of the WE program — additional winter emergency shelters in five churches and a community center.

One of the many beautiful things that’s come of the WE program this year is that it’s increased the public’s awareness of homelessness as an issue and of the homeless as people in Greensboro.  WE has also helped created a space for homeless people to find their own voices and their own solutions.

Because of WE, there is much more awareness this year that winter shelter is ending.  The Salvation Army winter overflow and one of the WE shelters closed a couple of weeks ago.  The remaining WE shelters close tomorrow.  The group of men at the HIVE’s WE shelter have been busy developing relationships and finding permanent housing.  Liz Seymour helped created a non-profit, the Greensboro Cooperative Housing Association, to help pay deposits and sign leases.  (News & Record article, 03/26/2009)

Paul Gydos, a resident of the HIVE’s WE shelter and a homeless activist, created a Google group and a web site, Homeless and Friends United Piedmont, with a short-term mission of establishing an Ongoing Emergency Shelter Program.  Paul has drafted an action plan calling the community and congregations to become a fiscal sponsor, host emergency shelters, volunteer and donate.  (News & Record article, 03/20/2009)

There will be a lot more people sleeping outside this Friday night when the NightWatch truck comes around.  Winter is ending.  Homelessness isn’t.  It’s complicated.

Update, 12/21/2008, 10:20 p.m.:  One of the ladies we were most worried about did come inside.  She’s in her bed now, safe and warm.  Thank you, Jesus. 

Update, 05/31, 2011, 2:13pm: The lady we were so worried about in December 2008 is now clean and sober and happily living with family in another state (she’s a grandmom!) — giving all the glory to God. Amen. Thank you, LORD.

He accepted the plate with a thankful but weary smile and noted that no homeless person will ever starve to death in this town.  There’s always food available.  Somebody’s serving something seven days a week — and most days, three meals.  As he turned to go, he added, “But you can’t cover up with a chicken wing.”

On Monday, December 15th, the WE! program — winter emergency shelter at churches and the HIVE — will begin, offering shelter and community to dozens of homeless people in Greensboro throughout the winter months.  And who knows what else will come out of this new venture?  Perhaps WE! will birth relationships and opportunities that will last into the spring, summer and beyond.

There’s a WE! organizational committee meeting on Monday, 12/8/2008 at 10:00am in the conference room at Greensboro Urban Ministry.  There’s a training for volunteers on Tuesday, 12/9/2008 at 7:00pm at First Presbyterian Church, following the (free!) 6:00pm meal.  Enter the church from the N. Greene St. entrance.

Because you can’t cover up with a chicken wing…

Then my friend came and sat on the couch beside me, and a group of us talked about the emergency winter shelter situation.  A currently homeless friend — who has been feeding other homeless people with take-home food from his catering job — sat on the other side of me, and they talked about helping homeless people. She told him about buying and cooking food and taking it to homeless people who sleep under bridges. This Thanksgiving, she’s planning to cook a turkey and invite anyone who doesn’t have a place to go — homeless or homed — to come and eat.  I have a place to go, but I think I’d rather be there.

I was with another homeless friend last night who is constantly gathering things for other homeless or hungry people — clothes, furniture, resources.  She cooks and serves with FNB.  She volunteers with DayWatch.  She is consistent, reliable and tireless.  She puts others first and herself last.  Always.  I am in awe of her.  I love her.

I’ve spent a big part of my day with another close friend, who is formerly homeless.  He devotes most of his time to feeding homeless and hungry people, through FNB.  Every time we have a crisis and need to mobilize and feed or serve people, he’s there.  Whenever we do DayWatch, he’s there.  When I need someone to move furniture, clean and organize spaces, shop for bulk stuff and load it on my truck, or just talk through the moving parts of street outreach ministry, he is there — consistent and faithful.  He’s my friend.  And he’s a friend to homeless and hungry people in Greensboro.

I like to help people, to serve people, to do things for people. But I also have the gift of a family who makes sure that I always have everything that I need. (Not want, but definitely need.) So I am operating and giving out of an abundance. My currently and formerly homeless friends, who are the experts on homelessness because they are or have been homeless (I am not an expert, just a  grateful friend of the experts), are giving and serving out of all that they have.  Every day, they teach me what sacrifice means.  I cannot express to you how thankful, how honored, how overwhelmed I am to have these friends in my life.  I hope that you have friends like mine.  If not, I’d love to introduce you to mine sometime.  I’m so not worthy of them, and yet so thankful that they keep letting me hang around.

God heard that prayer.  And He knew that one of the issues that I was struggling with in the midst of my pain was pride.  And that I knew it.  And that deep in my soul, I longed to be like Jesus.  Humble.  A servant.  And if that meant walking away from everything else that I had been doing in ministry and going and scrubbing toilets somewhere, then that’s what I wanted to do.

Ultimately, God didn’t have me scrub toilets right then.  Other than the ones in my house.  But He did continue to teach me and discipline me and heal me and restore me and expand the ministry path that He called me to.

On Sunday morning, I saw a message on the HIVE’s listserv about the bathrooms needing to be cleaned.  So in the afternoon, I went and cleaned them.  As I knelt down and scrubbed the first toilet, I thought about that prayer, several years before, and I smiled.  And thanked God for answering it.  I scrubbed those toilets for Jesus.  And the sinks and floors, too. It was awesome.

Thank you, LORD, for letting me love and serve people in real and practical ways.  I want to be like You…

The motel’s clientele includes the working poor and homeless families with infants and young children.  But the Coliseum Inn also shelters some of the hardest to serve people in our local homeless population — drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, ex-cons.  Many of my friends have stayed there over the years.  I’m sure that some are there now.  They work day labor, panhandle or use disability income to stay in the motel as long as they can, and when the money runs out, it’s back to the street until they have money again.

At the meeting with the HCD staff, we brainstormed ways to help.  It will be easier for some folks than for others.  I got a call from a City staffer today who told me that the sale had been finalized and it would be in the news today.  I reiterated my offer for our outreach team members to assist in meeting with residents and assessing their needs.  I also mentioned an idea that I’ve talked about with friends from the HIVE.  It’s not something that I’d necessarily expect the City to be thrilled about right away, but I think it could work here.

All of the City staff that I’ve spoken with about the Coliseum Inn sale have expressed concern about the residents, and are pursuing ways to assist them.  I very much appreciate their hearts for our homeless and low-income neighbors.

P.S.  Although I am concerned about where our friends and neighbors will go when the motel closes, I do not necessarily oppose the sale and closure of the property.  The Coliseum Inn is a very sad and oppressive place.**  And it just saps my spirit to walk the halls there.  So much hurt…  I want these folks to have a different place to live, a different life.  A new start.

My hope is that those who are excited about the revitalization of the High Point Road corridor will be not just equally, but even more excited about the possibility of revitalizing the lives of the wounded people who have been a part of this area for years.  People matter more than property.  Let’s be a city that cares.  And I don’t just mean City — government.  I mean city.  All of us.  Community.

**I don’t mean that as a slam against the owners and management.  They are providing affordable housing to people who would otherwise have none.  There are a lot of people with tragic lives at the Coliseum Inn, and it’s just a very sad place.

UPDATE, 11/18/2008: I never heard back from the City after my initial (and only) meeting with HCD about the Coliseum Inn sale and the need for housing for displaced residents.  City Council votes on this issue tonight.  More here.

I called the church, but our congregational nurse is on vacation. I emailed a contact at HealthServe, hoping he’d been there, but haven’t heard back yet. I’m not even sure if they can tell me, because of privacy laws. I’m hoping they were able to help him get his meds. I can’t imagine sleeping under a bridge after having major surgery.

Later, I went on over to the HIVE and cooked dinner with the Food Not Bombs folks. As I was leaving to go meet friends at Ganache, I got a call from one of the downtown cops, who wanted to know if we had any food left. He was with a hungry homeless man who’d just been released from jail, and he wanted to know if I could bring him something to eat. So Tim filled a grocery bag with containers of rice, gumbo, bread and fruit, and added utensils, napkins and bottled water. I went downtown and met them, and gave the man the bag of food. He was so thankful to receive it. I talked to him about where to go to get some other things that he needed, and then I went on to meet my friends.

Later in the evening, the downtown cops encountered another homeless man, who’d just been discharged from the hospital. He was from out of town and had no money and nowhere to go. So I tried to help them find a place for him to sleep. First, I called Greensboro Urban Ministry and explained the situation. But all their beds were full. Then I called the Salvation Army. No bed for him there, either. There are no other emergency shelter options for homeless men in Greensboro.

I talked to him for a little while and found out that he’d come to Greensboro from out of state, looking for work. And I told him, quite honestly, that he’d probably picked the wrong place to look. The lack of work has been a central topic of discussion for a while lately among my homeless friends, and we’d been talking about it earlier in the day, on the block and at the HIVE. Jobs — even temp work — are few and far between. The man said he’d probably try to go back where he came from.

I told him that there were no shelter beds available and that I didn’t have any other options for him to sleep inside, but I knew of a place he could sleep outside that would be comparatively safe. It was a ways away from where we were, so a patrol officer came by to give him a ride, and we asked him to drive by the places that serve breakfast and lunch, which were on the way, so that the man would know where he could eat in the morning. He asked for a blanket, and I didn’t have one. I carry them in my truck once it starts getting cold at night, and I hadn’t realized that the chilly nights are already here. I told him I could get him one tomorrow, knowing as I said it, how inadequate that was. He said he hoped to be gone by tomorrow. And then he got in the police car and they pulled away.

One of the remaining officers looked at me and said, “I feel like we just failed him. As a city, that we failed him.” Yeah, me too.

Hospitals discharge people to the street. Jails discharge people to the street. Part of our ten year plan to end homelessness is supposed to include discharge planning to prevent people from being sent from a hospital or jail to the street. But if the shelters are full and there’s no other housing, then what do you do? Hospitals and jails are not housing providers. Shelters only have so many beds. Cops shouldn’t have to be social workers. I don’t know what the answer is. I just know that I agree with my cop friend. I feel like we failed that guy. And we failed the guy who had surgery and got sent back under a bridge without his medicine. And there are so many more like them…

On Thursday, August 28 the committee working on plans for a day center for homeless people will have an opportunity to report to the homeless community on their progress. The August 28 meeting will be an opportunity for homeless people to hear a progress report and offer their feedback.

The vision statement for the proposed center was compiled through a series of meetings held by homeless people earlier this year, and a planning committee has been meeting monthly at Shiloh Baptist Church since then to move those plans forward.

WHAT: Day Center Reportback
WHEN: Thursday, August 28, 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: The HIVE, 1214 Grove Street

News release by Liz Seymour. Meeting open to the public and media. Questions? Contact me.

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.

Various homeless day center meetings and discussions continue. Greensboro City Council member Dianne Bellamy-Small is leading a group of providers, pastors and advocates who’ve been meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church, along with Council member Goldie Wells. Homeless folks have held a series of meetings at the downtown library, the HIVE, and Grace Community Church. Guilford County Commissioner Paul Gibson has attended some of these meetings, as well, and is hoping to bring all interested parties together soon. Stay tuned…

The Task Force to End Chronic Homelessness in Guilford County recently held a press conference in High Point to announce that a leadership committee is moving forward with implementation of the Ten Year Plan to end chronic homelessness. (Finally!) I skipped the pomp and circumstance. Necessary, I’m sure, but I don’t love PR. My friend Audrie went and reported that there were no homeless people, just lots of “fancy people” and back-patting. Figures.

Bright note: Jehan Benton of the United Way of Greensboro has been hired as the implementation director for the Ten Year Plan.

The housing support team has moved about 50 chronically homeless people off the street and into housing. It’s ironic that you can sum it up in one sentence like that — “The housing support team has moved about 50 chronically homeless people off the street and into housing.” I could write 50 books, 50 films, 50 songs — at least — about those 50 people. Each one has an unbelievable and compelling story. And each move off the street is complicated, messy, hopeful, chaotic, crazy, real. I want Mitch (program director) to write about it all someday. Maybe he will. Maybe the people in the program will write their stories. This housing program is a good thing. It is not so simple as “people are moving into housing.” Oh no, not at all. I never imagined how complicated and messy it would be, for every person. Or how beautiful. Thank you, God, for this program. And for my friend, Mitch McGee.

The idea behind the series of the meetings is to allow homeless people to speak out and advocate for themselves, and to let those with the power to make changes to the system know what’s working and what’s not working in the system from the perspective of those who are accessing services. The first meeting produced tangible results within days — changes are being made to the way that unsheltered homeless people access care at HealthServe.

Last night’s first question was about programs for unemployed single men who don’t have substance abuse or mental health issues — who are just unemployed. The perception is that there are more programs for women. (I’m not sure that’s true, though.) This was more a question for the homeless coalition than the County folks, though, so I offered to ask them and get back to him.

One homeless woman is new to Greensboro from out of state. She is a nurse and needs to get her license transferred here so that she can work, but she doesn’t have the money. She said that she’s not looking for a handout, just a “hand up.” She said that if someone would help her she is willing to “pass on the blessing,” and that she is willing to volunteer.

She also asked about transportation, which was covered in the previous meeting at the library. One gentleman spoke up and and gave the phone number for the county’s transportation service and mentioned that the list has been posted at the Weaver House shelter as well.

One man spoke about the need to “to get the monkey off your back” — referring to addiction — before you can work or get housing. He talked about his own struggle with crack cocaine, about spending seven months in rehab to get clean, and said that he was offered a job by the state of Georgia, where he was then living, because no one else would hire him. That job obviously made a big difference in his life, and his story emphasized the need for substance abuse treatment and for employers who will give second chances to people with criminal histories.

I asked how many people knew about Bridgeway, the new county treatment center that’s just opened. Few people raised their hands. Bridgeway will eventually offer medical detox, intensive outpatient treatment, and residential rehabilitation services. Joe Fortin from Guilford Center explained how to access services at Bridgeway by calling Guilford Center’s toll-free 24-hour phone number: 1-800-853-5163.

A woman asked about the needs of homeless youth and said, “They don’t need to be with older people.” She talked about their need for education, employment, health care and help dealing with sexual abuse that happens after they become homeless. She talked about homeless teens turning to prostitution. She stressed the need for a specific shelter and specific services for homeless youth — which we do not have now. As the woman spoke, a very recently homeless young lady was kneeling beside me, listening intently. A Christian ministry just moved her off the street, where she had been on and off since her early teens. After hearing the older woman speak passionately about the needs of homeless youth, the young lady looked up at me and said, “Well, I guess she covered it all. I’m going to go.” She seemed relieved.

The subject of a day center for homeless people came up again, and there does appear to be momentum on this issue, although Gibson said that it wouldn’t happen overnight. A formerly homeless gentleman asked, “How long? Three years, a lot of them be dead.” Another man spoke up and said that if money was the issue holding up the creation of the day center, then homeless people themselves could get involved in fundraising: “Bake sale, chicken, fish fry!” The group applauded in agreement. Liz Seymour of Food Not Bombs then invited the group to an upcoming meeting about a day center at the HIVE. It will be “for homeless people and by homeless people.”

After about an hour of dialogue, the group moved next door for Grace’s weekly community dinner, where the conversation continued during the meal. Stay tuned…