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BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN DURHAM – Faith and community leaders gathered for a collective call to action Friday to address homelessness and poverty during a day-long conference at Union Baptist Church. The first Faith Institute on Homelessness and Poverty brought together those who are helping, those who want to help, those who want to galvanize their congregations and those who have ideas on how best to do it. Henry Kaestner, co-founder of DurhamCares, moderated a session between four faith leaders about the spiritual call to end homelessness. Kaestner said the message of DurhamCares is to “love thy neighbor.” Rabbi Leah Berkowitz of Judea Reform Congregation said that Judaism’s imperative is to help the poor, hungry and homeless and to never oppress another people, as they were once slaves. “Helping the poor is a commandment, not …
This paper, written by students at the UNC School of Public Health, addresses the perceived need for respite care in Durham and reviews respite programs in other communities that could serve as models. Click here to download the report.
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, …
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 …