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A dilapidated gem will yield to housing

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The News & Observer

BY JOSH SHAFFER AND SARAH OVASKA - Staff Writers

RALEIGH -- In its time, the Water Garden stood as a shrine to modern design: a complex of low-slung, hill-hugging offices surrounded by tall, ivy-covered pine trees and ponds topped with lily pads.

You'd never guess from the car dealerships and furniture warehouses that such a gem stood hidden off Glenwood Avenue. And for the last three years, the complex has slowly rotted and gathered squatters' trash.

But now the site of the 11-acre Water Garden campus, home and life's work of master landscape architect Dick Bell, is being put to use. Starting next spring, its lush and rolling hills will be converted to low-income housing in a northwest Raleigh neighborhood where it is sorely needed.
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The roughly $6.1 million project by Downtown Housing Improvement Corp. includes 60 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments renting to households making 60 percent or less of the median income, or about $46,500 for a family of four. Rents will range from $332 to $675, depending on apartment size.

When finished in 2012, the Water Garden Village project will add another 80 to 100 units for low-income senior citizens and will provide easy access to groceries and drug stores, hopefully with a bus stop.

"There's a shortage of affordable housing in northwest Raleigh and land that isn't already developed," said Sam Eyre, project manager with DHIC. "From here, Cornerstone shopping center is in walking distance."

When Bell began Water Garden in the 1950s, the land on Glenwood Avenue was surrounded by unpopulated forest. Bell used to joke about the time his car rolled backward down the driveway and into the road, never encountering another vehicle for a quarter-mile.

He fashioned his campus as an inspiration to young designers, modeled on Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's summer home and architectural laboratory in Wisconsin. The idea for Bell was always to have landscape and building woven together, and his offices fit snugly into the wetlands, shaded by both native trees and the greenery he added. His wife, Mary Jo, ran a successful art gallery there.

Bell's blessing

Over his career, Bell gained fame for projects such as the Brickyard at N.C. State University, the amphitheater at Meredith College and Pullen Park. But ultimately, Bell left Water Garden for Atlantic Beach, unable to find anyone to take up his own plans for the property, which included a condominium development he described as a "retirement center for yuppies."

Before he moved, Bell also decried wasteful, low-density development and flimsy throw-away buildings, describing the development of U.S. 70 as "rape and scrape."

Reached last week, Bell said, "We tried to save it any way. I think we tried nine different schemes." Of DHIC's plans, he offered, "I think it's admirably suited if it's low-income. Maybe I'll move into one myself."

A Raleigh nonprofit, DHIC owns more than two dozen apartment communities in Wake County and other parts of the state, most of them reserved for tenants earning incomes below the median.

Most working families get priced out of northwest Raleigh, said Gregg Warren, DHIC's president. With the Brier Creek shopping center and its dozens of retail shops and restaurants 4 miles to the north, the area has jobs for new Water Garden families.

With a project cost estimated at $6.1 million, the Water Garden Village has a $1.3 million loan from Raleigh, a second $720,000 loan from Wake County and a third from the N.C. Housing Finance Agency for $614,000. The housing finance agency has also allowed an annual $870,000 tax credit to attract private investors.

When it's finished, the apartments will bear little resemblance to the campus Bell built. The windows have been smashed and the insulation torn out of the offices he designed, leaving the buildings open to squatters and the elements. They will not be saved, Eyre said, though DHIC will work to keep as many of the trees as it can. The new residents will have a wetlands buffer roughly a 10th of a mile thick between them and busy Glenwood Avenue.

Though the Bell buildings can't be saved, DHIC plans to make the project as green as possible as a nod to the environmentalist designer, recycling its construction waste, using eco-friendly carpeting and paint and making the apartments energy-efficient.

With the traffic shooting by between Raleigh and Durham, Water Garden isn't as tranquil as it was in 1956. But Bell and anyone else who dislikes waste will appreciate knowing that the place will soon draw new footsteps.

josh.shaffer@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4818

30-Aug-10 10:00 AM

DHHS to move most operations from Dix Hospital

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:00:00 GMT

by Bruce Mildwurf and Gerald Owens

WRAL.com

August 24, 2010

Raleigh, N.C. — The state Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that it would move most operations from Dorothea Dix Hospital to other facilities by the end of the year to save money.

State lawmakers didn't include any money for Dix operations in the 2010-11 budget, DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler said, so the department had to find ways to cut $28 million in operating costs.

Shifting services from Dix to Central Regional Hospital in Butner and Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro would save about $15 million while maintaining needed capacity for inpatient mental health treatment, Cansler said.

Sixty adult inpatient beds, 11 long-term beds, 54 forensic beds, 12 clinical research beds and pre-trial evaluation outpatient and inpatient services will be moved to Central Regional. Thirty long-term beds will be moved to Cherry Hospital.

After the shifts, 24 forensic beds and a child outpatient clinic will still be at Dix. The hospital, which has treated people with mental illness since 1856, had 183 patients as of Tuesday.

"This is purely something that was meant to happen when they built the new hospital (in Butner). It hasn't because we wanted to make sure we had the right patient care," Cansler said. "We're at a time now where we have to make the tough decisions and scale the hospital back."

More than 800 full-time and temporary workers are employed at Dix. Most of those who handle the services being moved to Central Regional will be reassigned to the Butner facility, Cansler said. DHHS will help employees who don't want to move or whose jobs will be eliminated because they are redundant at Central Regional to find other positions within the department, he said.

The state has debated for several years whether to close Dix altogether – Raleigh officials have offered to buy 306 acres of the site for a Central Park-type attraction – but it remains unclear how long the facility will remain open.

More than 1,300 DHHS employees will continue to work on the Dix campus after the moves.

DHHS spokeswoman Renee McCoy said department officials are still looking for places to cut the remaining $13 million in unfunded Dix operating costs.

Read the story on the WRAL website.

25-Aug-10 12:00 PM

Duke Mental Health Webinar: Effects of War on Military Families

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:15:00 GMT

The Duke AHEC Program, in collaboration with the Sandhills Local Management Entity, has developed an ongoing continuing medical series to address important psychiatric management issues encountered in community mental health settings. The current series is targeted toward psychiatrists and other providers working with seriously mentally ill adults and child in underserved regions of the State.

At the completion of this training, the participant will:

Increase the understanding of War Trauma
Develop awareness of the effects of war on military families
Learn the impact of war trauma on the surrounding communities
Discuss family and community interventions

This training is free and available online at any time. To access the training, please visit the Duke AHEC website.

Training Author:
Douglas A. Waldrep, MD, FAPA
COL United States Army (retired)

Dr. Waldrep obtained his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC in 1988. He has faculty appointments at the Medical College of Georgia and the Uniform Services University of Health Sciences as an Assistant Professor. Some of his clinical interests include training psychiatry residents, child and adolescent psychiatry, risk communication, and disaster psychiatry.

24-Aug-10 3:15 PM

AHEConnect Webinars: Treating the Invisible Wounds of War Series

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:00:00 GMT

To build bridges between local community resources and military families, Congress established the National Demonstration Program for Citizen-Soldier Support. Spearheaded by the Odum Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Citizen-Soldier Support Program (CSSP) focuses on all branches of the military and other reserve component members and families.

While it may be assumed that any post deployment mental health problems of service members and veterans would be identified and treated with in the Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs medical care continuum, available data suggest that only about 37% of the people qualified for DOD/VA benefits will seek assistance from the VA. This means there is a silent majority not receiving the care they need.

This course is designed to help primary care physicians, case workers, mental health providers - who may see a veteran or family member on an unrelated issue - develop a better understanding of the culture in which veterans and their families live and work, and provide best practices for identifying, assessing and treating mental health disorders that result from the trauma of war.

This training series is free and available online at any time. To access the trainings, please click the links below.

Part 1: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Part 2: Traumatic Brain Injury
Part 3: Issues of Women Returning from Combat

24-Aug-10 3:00 PM

NAEH 2010 Homelessnes Conference Materials

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:00:00 GMT

On July 12-14, 2010, the National Alliance to End Homelessness held its annual conference in Washington, DC. Presentations and handouts from the conference are available on the NAEH website.

4-Aug-10 9:00 AM

Ending Family Homelessness: Lessons from Communities

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT

This paper from the National Alliance to End Homelessness provides an overview of family homelessness in the United States. It examines the key strategies that communities are implementing to respond to increased family housing instability and homelessness. It also discusses the need for federal leadership.

In the years since the Alliance profiled six communities that reduced family homelessness in Promising Strategies to End Family Homelessness (2006), more communities have adopted the strategies that were key to their success. The onset of the recession and new resources dedicated to ending family homelessness have facilitated the adoption of these strategies and the growth of new approaches. By monitoring successful communities, the Alliance has identified six key strategies critical to ending family homelessness.

Prevention assistance
Rapid Re-Housing
Helping families pay for housing
Strategic use of services
Coordinated intake, assessment, and services
Data for planning and program management

Read the full paper here or download it from the NAEH website at www.endhomelessness.org/content/general/detail/3270.

4-Aug-10 8:00 AM

Wake OKs grant for new shelter

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:00:00 GMT

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 be completed in July.

3-Aug-10 11:00 AM

Using TANF Emergency Funds to Help Prevent and Address Family Homelessness

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) focuses on TANF and HPRP resources in a paper examining how local communities are using short-term benefits and HPRP resources to prevent evictions and re-house families.

Read the paper here or download it from the CBPP website at www.cbpp.org/files/7-13-10tanf.pdf.

28-Jul-10 8:00 AM

SAMHSA Permanent Supportive Housing Toolkit

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:30:00 GMT

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and its Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) provide Evidence-Based Practice KITs (Knowledge Informing Transformation) to promote the use of evidence-based practices in mental health. The KITs were developed as one of several SAMHSA/CMHS activities critical to its science-to-services strategy.

SAMHSA has developed a new toolkit for Permanent Supportive Housing, which was informed by numerous organizations advocating for homeless individuals and families. The KIT focuses specifically on helping communities to implement a scattered site model of supportive housing.

Download the full toolkit from the SAMHSA website.

22-Jul-10 11:30 AM

July 2010 Capital Hill Advocacy Afternoon Materials

Denise Neunaber — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:00:00 GMT

On July 14, 2010, NCCEH staff and North Carolina conference attendants met with Congressional representatives in Washington, D.C., during the National Alliance to End Homelessness conference. Please click the links below to download the materials that were shared with our elected representatives.

North Carolina Information:

Continuum of Care Awards Summary: view pdf
2010 Point-in-Time Count Fact Sheet: view pdf
2010 Point-in-Time Count Map (Numbers per County): view pdf
2010 Point-in-Time County Map (Percentages per County): view pdf

Federal Policy Information:

Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness Executive Summary: view pdf
AHAR Key Points: view pdf
McKinney-Vento Appropriations (NAEH one-pager): view pdf
Housing and Services Demonstration Project (NAEH one-pager): view pdf
National Housing Trust Fund (NAEH one-pager): view pdf
Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Appropriations (NAEH one-pager): view pdf
Ending Veterans Homelessness (NAEH one-pager): view pdf
Zero Tolerance for Veterans Homelessness Act (NAEH one-pager): view pdf
SAMHSA Appropriations: view pdf
Runaway and Homeless Youth Act Appropriations (NAEH one-pager): view pdf

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has prepared a summary of the activities and results of these congressional visits. Click here to download the report.

16-Jul-10 4:00 PM

On the Streets: The Federal Response to Gay and Transgender Homeless Youth

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:30:00 GMT

The Center for American Progress (CAP) recently released a report, "On the Streets: The Federal Response to Gay and Transgender Homeless Youth." Authored by Nico Sifra Quintana, Josh Rosenthal, and Jeff Krehely, it explores the reasons why gay and transgender youth are disproportionately represented among the homeless youth population. Probable causes listed include rejection by parents and violence and/or discrimination in institutions like schools and shelters. These problems are exacerbated by a lack of federal programs and funds available to serve homeless youth and little protection against discrimination for these populations. The CAP authors offer a host of solutions that the Administration should consider in order to solve these issues, including providing better services and programs, expanding housing options, and doing more research on the problem.

Read the full report here or download it from the CAP website at www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/06/pdf/lgbtyouthhomelessness.pdf.

16-Jul-10 3:30 PM

Housing Help Program: Homelessness Prevention Pilot Final Report

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:00:00 GMT

In June 2010, Seedco and the United Way of New York City released the results of an evaluation of a homelessness prevention program targeted at low income families facing eviction - the Housing Help Program (HHP). The study reports on the outcomes of 1,059 families that received a combination of legal, benefits, and social services intended to prevent evictions and subsequent shelter entry. HHP differs from other eviction prevention models applied in New York City and elsewhere in its emphasis on early intervention, location in the court house, team-based approach, inclusion of a social worker, and access to long-term social services. The evaluation found that 91 percent of the families served by HHP achieved positive court or housing outcomes and that just fewer than six percent were known to have entered shelter in the three years following their participation in the program.

The report also includes an interesting cost-benefit analysis that attempts to assess the degree to which the program not only prevented evictions but also prevented homelessness that would have occurred without the program. Such an analysis is critical to evaluating the success of prevention efforts. While the study did not include a control group (the preferred approach to addressing this question), the evaluators compared the shelter entry outcomes of the 1,059 HHP participants to the outcomes of those receiving the anti-eviction services of another New York City program. The comparison revealed that 51 of the 1,059 families served by HHP would have entered shelter without the program, resulting in an estimated annual cost savings of $737,376. An additional analysis confirmed the incremental economic benefit of the inclusion of a social worker on the HHP team.

Read the full report here or download it from the New York City government's website at www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/downloads/pdf/final_HHP_Seedco_rpt.pdf.

8-Jul-10 12:00 PM

NAEH HPRP Virtual Discussion

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:00:00 GMT

The Center for Capacity Building's Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) Virtual Discussion from June 24 is available on the National Alliance to End Homelessness website. During the discussion, Alliance staff, providers, and other interested parties discussed working with Legal Aid, how to improve employment outcomes for clients, budgeting with program participants, and more.

7-Jul-10 1:00 PM

Effective HPRP Case Management Training Materials

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:00:00 GMT

On June 28, 2010, NCCEH hosted a training on Effective HPRP Case Management. Melissa Mowery, Program Director for CAMBA's HomeBase, which provides rapid re-housing, aftercare and prevention services to families and adults in New York City, was the speaker at this training.

Material from the training are posted below.

"Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing" PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)

HomeBase Rapid Re-Housing Field Guide

Handout Packet

1-Jul-10 9:00 AM

National Health Care for the Homeless 2010 Conference Materials

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:00:00 GMT

The 2010 National Healthcare for the Homeless Conference and Policy Symposium was held June 3-5 in San Francisco, CA. The conference looked back at 25 years of HCH experience and looked forward to the challenges of making national health care reform work to help end homelessness.

Materials from the conference are available on the HCH website. For audio recordings of sessions, presenters' PowerPoints, and handouts, go to the conference schedule and click on the session you are interested in.

30-Jun-10 11:00 AM

Between the Lines 2010: A Question and Answer Guide on Legal Issue in Supportive Housing

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT

The Corporation for Supportive Housing is pleased to make available the 2010 National Edition of Between the Lines: A Question and Answer Guide on Legal Issues in Supportive Housing. The Guide is published in two parts: the Chapters, which include an explanation of federal and some state laws governing supportive housing in a question and answer format; and the Appendices, which include more detailed information referenced in the Chapters.

In 2001, CSH, with support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, published the first Between the Lines. Supportive housing developers, service providers, property managers, and government staff have since frequently referenced the Guide for clarification on general legal principles related to developing, leasing, and operating supportive housing.

Much has changed since, as more communities have embraced permanent supportive housing as the model for reducing homelessness among populations vulnerable to housing instability. The law has changed as well, often attempting to catch up with this trend. CSH engaged 2001 Between the Lines authors Goldfarb & Lipman, L.L.P., to draft an updated version of the Guide. The 2010 version of the Guide allows readers to link directly to specific chapters, as well as to sections and questions within each chapter, by clicking on the bookmark icon, then clicking on the "+" sign next to "Chapters.".

While readers can search any section of the Guide for an answer to a specific question, CSH recommends reviewing the first two chapters to understand how the law is organized before seeking answers in any other section of the book.

Download the Chapters and the Appendices here or from the CSH website at www.csh.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=4530&nodeID=81.

24-Jun-10 3:00 PM

Opening Doors: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released a new federal strategic plan geared toward preventing and ending homelessness on June 22, 2010. The Secretaries of the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Veterans Affairs unveiled Opening Doors: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness together at a White House ceremony. The plan, the first comprehensive federal plan developed to prevent and end homelessness, borrows heavily from the principles used in many community plans with similar goals.

Opening Doors sets four major goals:

Finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in five years;
Prevent and end homelessness among veterans in five years;
Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children in ten years; and
Set a path to ending all types of homelessness.

Results from annual point-in-time homeless persons counts will be used to measure progress. The latest data (from January 2009) showed that there were approximately:

111,000 people experiencing chronic homelessness;
107,000 veterans who were homeless;
79,000 homeless families with 238,000 adults and children; and
643,000 homeless people overall.

The plan was required by the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, which was enacted into law in May 2009. The 67-page plan includes dozens of strategies and ten objectives, ranging from "[Providing] affordable housing to people experiencing or most at risk of homelessness" to "[Transforming] homeless services to crisis response systems that prevent homelessness and rapidly return people who experience homelessness to stable housing."

As a next step, federal agencies are meeting to prioritize which strategies should be implemented first and to develop implementation plans. USICH will report annually on progress toward implementation and achieving reductions in homelessness.

Read the full report here or download it from the USICH website at www.ich.gov/PDF/OpeningDoors_2010_FSPPreventEndHomeless.pdf.

22-Jun-10 3:00 PM

Staying Home 2010: The Rights of Renters Living in Foreclosed Properties

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP) has released its report "Staying Home: The Rights of Renters Living in Foreclosed Properties". The paper examines the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) and how it is being implemented across the country. PTFA contains several provisions, including a mandate that tenants must receive 90 days notice before being required to vacate their property, intended to shield tenants from unlawful evictions that may force them into homelessness. However, as the report makes clear, a majority of tenants' rights in these situations are still determined by state law. A review of each of the fifty states' tenant laws is included within the report.

Additionally, the report profiles the efforts of various organizations, including government agencies, to educate others about and enforce the PTFA. NLCHP also details instances in which the provisions of the Act have been violated. In their recommendations section, the authors recommend stronger enforcement and continuing education about the law for both tenants and relevant agencies. State legislatures and bank regulatory agencies are seen as particularly important partners in ensuring the rights of tenants and enforcing PTFA.

Read the full report here or download it from the NLCHP website at www.nlchp.org/content/pubs/StayingHomeReport_June2010.pdf.

22-Jun-10 3:00 PM

Ending Family Homelessness in Massachusetts: A New Approach for the Emergency Assistance (EA) Program

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:00:00 GMT

The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation recently released a report called "Ending Family Homelessness in Massachusetts: A New Approach for the Emergency Assistance (EA) Program." The report, authored by Dennis Culhane and Thomas Byrne, examines how Massachusetts can improve its response to family homelessness. Recommendations by the authors on how to further efforts to improve Massachusetts' family homelessness system include providing increased program flexibility to "right-size" interventions to meet the needs of individual families, removing incentives that encourage long-term shelter and motel stays rather than stable housing outcomes, and providing alternatives to shelter that allow families to receive assistance and avoid homelessness. Culhane and Byrne note that Massachusetts - a state which has already invested considerable state and local resources to reduce and end family homelessness - is well-suited to incorporate even more effective solutions.

Read the full report here or download it from the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation's website at www.ppffound.org/documents/whitepaper.pdf.

17-Jun-10 11:00 AM

2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress (AHAR)

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released the 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), the fifth in a series of reports on homelessness in the United States. The reports respond to a series of Congressional directives calling for the collection and analysis of data on homelessness.

The AHAR reports provide the latest counts of homelessness nationwide—including counts of individuals, persons in families, and special population groups such as veterans and chronically homeless people. The report also covers the types of locations where people use emergency shelter and transitional housing; where people were just before they entered a residential program; how much time they spend in shelters over the course of a year; and the size and use of the U.S inventory of residential programs for homeless people.

For the first time, this 2009 AHAR includes information from in-person interviews with local service providers located in nine communities nationwide. This qualitative information provides a contextual backdrop for understanding how homelessness is changing.

Read the full report here or download it from the HUD HRE website at www.hudhre.info/documents/5thHomelessAssessmentReport.pdf.

16-Jun-10 3:00 PM