The women’s winter shelter closed at the end of March. The Greensboro Urban Ministry shelter is full. She’s applied to the Salvation Army’s shelter program, but hasn’t gotten in there, either. There are no other shelters in Greensboro.

A nurse at the IRC (a friend of mine) suggested she call me. Our StreetWatch ministry provides tents and sleeping bags for homeless people who sleep outside. She asked me for blankets and she wanted to know where would be a safe location for her to sleep? And quite honestly, I didn’t know what to tell her.

I’ve had so many calls lately about homeless women on the street in Greensboro. They all need someplace to stay. I get calls from the homeless women themselves, calls from police officers, calls from homeless service providers. The shelters are full, what are the options? Well, not many that I know of.

There are women’s shelters in other towns nearby, but that’s not an option for many of these women, for various reasons. I’ve suggested to all of them that they go to the IRC, which has a housing program, but what I hear back is that unless they have an income, there’s no housing available. (Makes sense and I knew that, but I remain hopeful that someone will have housing vouchers!)

Most of the homeless women who sleep outside have a boyfriend or husband. If they weren’t with a partner when they became homeless, they find one quickly. I hear from many women that companionship and safety are very important when you live on the street. A woman living outside alone is much more vulnerable.

I’m not sure what to tell the lady who called me today. There are two tent cities within walking distance of downtown, but neither has single women living there and at both places, the residents have a voice in who joins their community, so there’s no guarantee that either will be the right fit for her. I’m not sure if she’d prefer community life or a place to herself. And it’s not always easy to find a safe, legal place to camp. (Property owners have given permission for homeless people to camp on the land where the tent cities are located.)

I’m about to go to the StreetWatch storage unit to pick up blankets and a sleeping bag and go find this lady. I still don’t know where she’ll sleep tonight. Another homeless woman sleeping outside in Greensboro. That’s messed up. We need a women’s shelter. Well, we need more shelter space for homeless people, period. But women, especially, do not need to be living outside. And women living alone on the street? That should just never, ever happen.

“The winter emergency — or WE — network of seasonal shelters for the homeless will expand this year to include the downtown YWCA building as a consolidated women-only site. The spaces in the existing locations will be assigned only to men — opening up another 12 beds for men.”

Good news!

“Last winter, 110 participants were assigned shelter beds. That number is expected to increase to at least 123 beds this year. Last year, the men’s spaces stayed full, but the women’s sites were never full. The locations are for adults only, which keeps out women with children.”

Not so good news.

>> Read all of “Beds added to aid needy this winter” at News-Record.com

As always, lots of homeless folks will choose to stay in their camps during the winter. If you’ve worked hard to build a camp (some have mattresses, furniture, showers, camp stoves, etc.), you don’t want to go to a shelter for the winter and have to leave all your possessions, which likely wouldn’t be there when you got back, if you did leave. NightWatch, StreetWatch and others will continue to do outreach to unsheltered homeless people during the winter.

Please consider making a donation to help fund winter shelter in Greensboro. Contact Greensboro Urban Ministry at 336-271-5959 to learn more.

Some demographics about those who stayed in Greensboro’s  winter homeless shelters this year:

• 55 women
• 150 men

• 13% age 18-30 years (youngest 18)
• 72% age 31-55 years
• 15% 56 years or older (oldest 67)

• 75% black
• 21% white
• 5% other

• 25% chronically homeless (unaccompanied disabled individual who has been continuously homeless for over one year)
• 11% veterans (23)

• 56% cited unemployment as the cause of their homelessness

The men’s winter shelter locations (# of people sheltered):

• First Presbyterian Church (20)
• Pleasant Garden Baptist Church (20)
• West Market Street Methodist Church (15)
• Mt. Zion Baptist Church (15)
• FaithStep Ministries (11)

The women’s winter shelter locations (# of people sheltered):

• Grace Community Church (15)
• First Baptist Church (10)

» Read more about the operation of the shelters in “Press Release, Report on 2009-10 Greensboro Urban Ministry Winter Emergency (WE) Shelters”

Thoughts from a friend:

“Usually the cop would do the opposite of that. They wouldn’t stand there and watch you and make sure you’re alright. They’d run you away… [The youth are] gonna be there with all their friends, in one spot. They’re in a fenced-in area. That ain’t nothing like being homeless… I understand what they’re trying to do and instill in their minds, but that’s not how it is.”

So, to recap: Youth groups are sleeping outside at the church on Friday night to raise awareness of homelessness, but if actual homeless people try to sleep there on any night, they can be charged with trespassing.  Isn’t that… well, kind of wrong, somehow??  (OK, I’m trying not to get stuck in “justice mode”…  moving on… )

The great part: While these young people probably won’t have their own authentic experience of homelessness on Friday night, they will have a unique opportunity to focus their time, their energy, their thoughts and their hearts on some of the realities that our homeless brothers and sisters face every day.  This could be a life-changing event for the participants.  I’m praying for all: for eyes to see and ears to hear, and for God to grow in them His own heart for the poor.  Go and be a blessing to the homeless in Greensboro and around the world!

Update: This event was planned to take place in a park, but when the location didn’t work out, New Jerusalem asked Grace if they could do it there.  Grace said yes and their youth were also invited.  I posted about this because I found irony in doing a homeless simulation in which people did things that homeless people actually can’t do.  But I very much appreciate their desire to raise awareness of homelessness.

People I know at New Jerusalem are very involved in local homeless efforts, including the day center, housing for chronically homeless people, the homeless coalition and the partnership to end homelessness,  and they’ve told me that homelessness is a priorty for their church, as well.  Grace has focused on serving the homeless for many years, and current ministries include: Grace currently provides a weekly meal for 200+ people; a HUD voucher program that houses the homeless; and winter shelter for women.

Photo credit: John Newsom; News & Record

Overnight temperatures in Greensboro last night were in the 30′s. Community winter emergency shelters (the WE program) all closed by April 1st, a two-week extension for most. Firefighters responded to an early morning fire in a vacant building at the corner of Lee and Aycock streets this morning. The News & Record reports:

“No injuries were reported. Authorities said the fire was sparked by discarded smoking materials; at least one homeless person had been inside the building. Damage to the vacant building was estimated at $30,000.”

Ironically, $30,000 is the average per month that the WE program received from Operation Greensboro Cares to fund emergency shelter for more than 100 people.  One month, 100 people vs. one night, one building.  Hmmm… makes you think, doesn’t it?

Homelessness costs our community.  Those dollars can serve people (pro-actively) or clean up after them (re-actively).  I know which makes more sense to me.

“Mentally ill, addicted to pain pills, homeless at 53, Betty Ann Scott went through jail, hospitals, rehab, every place but where she wound up the afternoon of Feb. 15.

For once, her hospital stay would be long — 15 days. But there is no treatment here, and the room temperature is 42 degrees in this part of Moses Cone Hospital: the county morgue, where Scott was dead on arrival after a suspected drug overdose…”

>> Continue reading “Mental health reform is ailing,” online at News-Record.com
>> Download PDF of article

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.

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.

According to the 2009 count, there were 473 homeless people in emergency shelters, only 86 of whom are chronically homeless.   Just for fun, I might make a list of the sheltered homeless people that I know who are chronically homeless.  Who wants to bet that I could come up with more than 86, just in Greensboro?

But wait, it gets better.  According to the 2007 count, there were 502 homeless people in emergency shelters.  This was before we began the community shelter program.  The WE! winter shelters in Greensboro just opened in December 2008 and added 100 emergency shelter beds.  And yet, we only had 473 people in shelter this winter, including all of the county’s homeless shelters and their winter overflow beds, and the new winter emergency program.  Anyone see a discrepancy?  So technically, the number of sheltered homeless people went down this year?  Um, what?

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.