Noel Edwards was homeless and staying at Good Shepherd Center when Sharron Cain found her. Shameeka Winfield was struggling with the effects of having a criminal record, the result of a mistake she made years ago. Both will graduate Friday from the fall classes of Project Uplift Career Pathways Academy, a training program for adults of low to moderate incomes. It’s operated by the Countywide Community Development Corp., which serves Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender and Columbus counties. Both have landed good jobs, Edwards at AME Zion Housing Development Corp. and Winfield at Family Perspectives LLC. They are among about 30 graduates of Project Uplift classes. One morning last week, Edwards and Winfield were in the office administration class at the Hillcrest Recreation Center off Dawson Street. About 15 women were working at computer terminals under the tutelage of Carmenitha Berry, …
By PAUL CLARK Asheville Citizen-Times Posted: Nov. 15, 2008 ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Travis Robinson was headed for the streets when he heard about the Veterans Restoration Quarters. It may have saved his life, he believes. For months, he'd been having nightmares about his time in Iraq. Enemy fire and bombings were constant for the 37th Engineer Battalion as it set up support in hostile territory for soldiers coming from the rear. At home at his parents' house in Rutherford County, he'd wake up with a shotgun beside him. He was drinking, heavily. Because of it, his parents gave him a timetable for getting out of the house. He sought treatment at the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville, where he learned about the Veterans' Restoration Quarters, an old Super 8 motel on Tunnel Road that Asheville-Buncombe Community …
By Clay Barbour cbarbour@charlotteobserver.com Posted: Monday, Nov. 03, 2008 The pickings are getting slim at one of Tina Partridge's favorite shopping spots, another sign of the country's tough times. About once a month Partridge and her five children head to the Steele Creek Goodwill retail store, where the young mother can find great deals on everything from school clothes to dirt bikes. But the slumping economy is taking its toll on selection these days, and that hits parents like Partridge particularly hard. “With a big family like mine, finding the stuff you need at a good price is a matter of survival,” she said. Goodwill officials said area donations were down 5 percent for the year, 10 percent over just the past three months. Meanwhile, the organization has experienced a dramatic increase in demand for its free …
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 …
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.
The Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services is charged with examining, on a continual basis, the system-wide issues affecting the development, financing, administration, and delivery of mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse services, including issues related to governance, accountability and quality of services. Their 2007 report includes an assessment of the current system and recommendations for improvements. View the committee's 2007 Report to the General Assembly
NCCEH hosted a training on San Diego's Serial Inebriate Program in March, 2008. The materials from the training are posted here.