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Asheville Homelessness on WWNC 570 Radio

Amy Sawyer, Homeless Initiative Coordinator at the City of Asheville, and Robin Merrell, member of the Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Inititative Advisory Committee, discuss family homelessness with Tank Spencer of radio station WWNC 570.   Listen to the conversation on the WWNC website.  


Wake OKs grant for new shelter

From Staff Reports RALEIGH -- With as many as 85 homeless families on a waiting list for shelter in Wake County, county commissioners took a new Salvation Army facility for "fragile families" a step closer to reality Monday. Commissioners agreed unanimously to provide $500,000 in federal community development block grant money to the $4 million redevelopment of a 40,000-square-foot building inside the Beltline on Capital Boulevard.   The charity operates a homeless shelter near Moore Square in downtown Raleigh but wants a larger facility to give more services to families. The city of Raleigh is considering a separate $500,000 request; it is expected to come before a Sept. 7 council meeting.   Construction on the building - supplied with everything from a computer center to play centers to a full-service commercial kitchen - is expected to start in October and …


Surge in Homeless Pupils Strains Schools

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 …


Women in Poverty on "The State of Things"

WUNC's "The State of Things" aired a program about women in poverty, both now and in the past.  Topics discussed included TANF, healthcare, and childcare.  Ann Burke, executive director of Urban Ministries of Wake County, spoke during the second half of the program.   Listen to the archived program on The State of Things website (scroll to August 19, 2009).


In emergency shelter, kids fret about school

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 …


Homelessness affects hundreds in NC county

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 …


One family truly thankful for the roof over their heads

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 …