Stimulus goal: Stem homeless tide in city By Matthew E. Milliken : The Herald-Sun mmilliken@heraldsun.com Mar 12, 2009 DURHAM -- The federal stimulus package will provide $789,000 for Durham agencies to devote to the prevention of homelessness over the next three years. Rules for the new program, which will get $1.5 billion nationally and $29 million around the state, could be finalized by federal authorities next week. But advocates say it will help keep people off the streets by providing money they need to stay housed or to find new housing. "This is really a new way of thinking about prevention than we have typically dealt with in the past in North Carolina," said Denise Neunaber, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness. Neunaber said her group and allies around the nation have been lobbying for years …
GREENSBORO, N.C. — For two months last fall, the Coltrane sisters had no place to call home. They lived with friends, at a motel and briefly at a house with no stove or bathroom floor. Those were trying times for 15-year-old LaRicó Coltrane, her older sister, Chantel, 17, and the youngest, 8-year-old Kashayia. "We'd all be quiet, and Momma would be like, 'Say something, say something. We're all in this together,' " LaRico said. "And we'd all start crying because we didn't know what to say." The News & Record of Greensboro reported they were not alone. More than 930 students in Guilford County schools are homeless, according to documents filed with the system. And school officials fear the number actually is much higher than that. Terri Sims-Warren, a veteran social worker at Smith High School, estimates that 200 students …
By Fred Clasen-Kelly frkelly@charlotteobserver.com Posted: Saturday, Jan. 03, 2009 Tom Duncan took the day off work, but faced a menacing job: Clean and paint a vacant apartment infested with cockroaches and covered in dust. Duncan was among roughly 200 volunteers Friday helping convert an idle 12-story uptown building into a temporary homeless shelter. “We will do what we can,” he said after pointing to food the former tenant left in the refrigerator. Volunteers spent hours repairing, painting and cleaning to prepare the Hall House for homeless women and their children. They will continue working from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. Social agencies are trying to reduce a shortage of homeless shelter beds in Charlotte. More than 5,000 people in Charlotte-Mecklenburg are homeless on a given night, but there are less than 2,000 shelter beds. Officials were overwhelmed Friday by …
BRUNSWICK COUNTY | After living in a camper doomed for the dump, Tina Mattoon is thankful she doesn’t have to sleep next to the toilet anymore. That’s because on Tuesday, she moved into a three-bedroom mobile home with her four daughters. Even with no food, this Thanksgiving will be one to remember. And now, she can choose from two bathrooms. With doors. “I’m happy to be in a home,” said Mattoon, who became homeless when her roommate kicked her and her children out. “I don’t have anything for Thanksgiving, but I have a house. That’s all that matters.” Mattoon, a former waitress-turned-Bojangles’ worker, is part of a growing number of people losing their homes because of the slumping economy. Last year, 67 families were homeless in Brunswick County, said Joe Cannon, executive director of Brunswick Family Assistance Agency, a figure …
By Martha Quillin martha.quillinnewsobserver.com Posted: Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008 DURHAM - An apartment complex expected to open next month will almost quadruple the number of beds for veterans at risk of homelessness in this city, and housing experts say it's not nearly enough. The nonprofit Volunteers of America built the 24-unit Maple Court apartments in Durham because a disproportionate number of the Triangle's 500 or more homeless veterans live there. Bob Williamson, who runs the health care program for homeless vets at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Durham, said vets are drawn to the area because of the VA and other veterans services, and the hope of jobs. For years, however, those who couldn't find or keep jobs have ended up sleeping in shelters, parks, abandoned buildings and under bridges. The VA has long recognized homelessness as a problem among …
WASHINGTON - On a cold January morning in 2001, Mel Martinez, then the new secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was headed to his office in his limo when he saw some homeless people huddled on the vents of the steam tunnels that heat federal buildings. "Somebody ought to do something for them," Martinez said he told himself. "And it dawned on me at that moment that it was me." So began the Bush administration's radical, liberal -- and successful -- national campaign against chronic homelessness. "Housing first," it's called. That's to distinguish it from traditional programs that require longtime street people to undergo months of treatment and counseling before they're deemed "housing ready." Instead, the Bush administration offers them rent-free apartments up front. New residents, if they choose, can start turning their lives around with the …
We have compiled a list of important terms and concepts to help you navigate and understand the issue of homelessness and the policies and programs created to end it. Click to read the Glossary of Terms.
A recurrent theme in many state and local plans to end homelessness is an acknowledgment that increased focus on the housing needs of ex-offenders is required if community goals are to be met. Data in this report shows that 7% of those entering a correctional facility in NC meet the definition of homeless, while 23% of those exiting the system report that they will exit into federally defined homelessness. Implications and the need for future research are addressed. Read the pdf article here.
NCCEH hosted a training on Fair Housing Law for Shelters on June 15, 2007. The materials from the training have been posted here: "Serving Persons with Disabilities: Legal Responsibilities of Emergency Shelters" View PowerPoint Presentation View Handout
NCCEH hosted a training on San Diego's Serial Inebriate Program in March, 2008. The materials from the training are posted here.