Housing advocates worry 26% increase could offset progress By Ray Gronberg, The Herald-Sun DURHAM -- A single-day count in late January found 140 more homeless people in Durham County than did a companion assessment in 2009. The annual point-in-time count, orchestrated by the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition and conducted the night of Jan. 27-28, found 675 people who met the federal government's definition of being homeless. Of those, 607 were in some sort of emergency or transition shelter, according to figures advocates have relayed to local officials and a statewide nonprofit. The rest were staying in places the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development deems "unfit for human habitation," like cars, abandoned buildings, makeshift campsites or the streets. A similar count last year found 535 homeless people in Durham County. Housing advocates were expecting an increase, …
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Jennifer FernandezStaff Writer GREENSBORO — Every year, volunteers comb shelters, wooded areas and abandoned buildings as part of the annual “point-in-time” count of the homeless. The survey, which takes place today, will include for the first time a count of those who are considered “precariously housed” or “imminently homeless” in Greensboro. Officials handling High Point’s count said they are not adding the optional category to their survey this year. Housing experts suspect a growing number of families straddle a fine line between stability and homelessness. They hope the survey will provide a better picture of what is happening. “Part of it is with the economic situation getting worse, we know that there are a lot more people losing their housing than there used to be or about to lose housing,” said Beth McKee-Huger, executive director of …
by Erik Eckholm The New York Times Published: September 5, 2009 ASHEVILLE, N.C. - In the small trailer her family rented over the summer, 9-year-old Charity Crowell picked out the green and purple outfit she would wear on the first day of school. She vowed to try harder and bring her grades back up from the C's she got last spring — a dismal semester when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family was evicted and migrated through friends’ houses and a motel. Charity is one child in a national surge of homeless schoolchildren that is driven by relentless unemployment and foreclosures. The rise, to more than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their responsibilities — and the …
Nan Roman, the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, spoke on NPR's Weekend Edition about the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program. Listen to the story on the NPR website.
By Tonya Jameson tjameson@charlotteobserver.com Posted: Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009 When school starts on Tuesday, Sierra will be a senior. This is her time to tour colleges, giggle about prom and stress about graduation. But Sierra's senior year wasn't supposed to start like this: Living in an emergency shelter. Sharing one room with her mom and sister. Worried about whether she can afford college – any college. “I know I should be happy because it's my last year,” said Sierra, sitting in the day care room of the shelter. “I've been struggling.” Sierra and her family live at Charlotte Emergency Housing. She is one of nearly 3,000 students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools who are considered homeless. When these students go to school Tuesday some might catch the bus in front of a cheap …
NCCEH has created a two-page document explaining the structure, roles and functions of the Continua of Care. Read the pdf version here.
Read Malcolm Gladwell's article about the cost of one homeless man to the public system during his years on the streets. This article was originally published in The New Yorker magazine in 2006.
The SOAR initiative is a federally funded partnership (HHS, HUD) that seeks to assist adults who are homeless to apply for SSI/SSDI, which generally provides health insurance as well. SOAR involves a comprehensive approach that includes training for community and hospital staffs in the intricacies of the SSI/SSDI application process and ensuring that approved individuals receive health insurance, treatment, and other services to begin recovery. This initiative is a “win” for all medical providers, including hospitals, as services and medications are then covered under Medicaid or Medicare, depending on the disability benefit received. Read the full description here.
On June 29, 2009, NCCEH hosted a summit for hospital leadership on "Increasing Successful Outcomes While Decreasing Costs: Hospital Partnerships to End Homelessness." Agenda and Presentations: Summit Agenda: view pdf Richard Cho, Corporation for Supportive Housing - "Current Research: Costs and potential cost savings associated with healthcare for frequent users who are homeless": view ppt Lori Pacura, Mount Sinai Medical Center - "Model of Success: Chicago Housing for Health Partnership": view ppt Brooks Ann McKinney, Raleigh Rescue Mission - "Homeless Mental Health Respite": view ppt Denise Neunaber, NC Coalition to End Homelessness - "NC SOAR: Success Through Outreach, Access and Recovery": view ppt Additional Resources: From the Corporation for Supportive Housing: Frequent Users of Health Services Initiative fact sheet: view pdf "A Dollars and Cents Strategy to Reducing Frequent Use of Hospital Services": view pdf Press …
People in Greensboro, N.C. could tell early on it was going to be a hard winter for the city's homeless population. With the recession and the housing crisis, the city's shelters and overflow spaces were already full - and this winter promised to be a cold one. Alice Bolton heard about that and began to wonder - why couldn't she put some of those people up in her church? She soon learned other churches and a community center were wondering the same thing. Dick Gordon of The Story talks with Alice about how she convinced Pleasant Garden Baptist Church to set out cots in the fellowship hall and welcome about 20 homeless men. He also talks with Ron Clark, one of the men who found a home and a second chance there. Listen to the interview on The …