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 …
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.
During the week of April 25, 2011, WUNC examines a persistent problem for mentally ill people in North Carolina – housing. Mental health reformers have repeated their intention to move people out of large institutions toward treatment options closer to home. But even as people have left hospitals, local resources have not kept pace. That means in North Carolina, many people with mental health disabilities live in adult care homes designed for frail elderly people. Now the U S Justice Department is investigating this situation. In the first installment of the series, North Carolina Voices, Mental Health Disorder, Rose Hoban reports that it could mean big changes for North Carolina. Listen to the interview and read the transcript on the WUNC website.
By Larry Sackett StarNews Correspondent Published: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 2:21 p.m. One year ago Howard Long, 50, was homeless, had no income, and was living outdoors. He had been to the emergency room at least twice and had been arrested for sleeping in public. Today Long rents an apartment, pays for groceries and utilities and has health insurance from Medicare. What changed Long’s life is an innovative program called SOAR, which last year helped get 31 chronically homeless people in New Hanover County into housing. SOAR stands for SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery. SSI is Supplemental Security Income and SSDI is Social Security Disability Insurance; both are administered by the Social Security Administration. SOAR is part of the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in the Cape Fear Region, which is administered …
At the Interactive Resource Center, a nonprofit day facility designed to assist Greensboro’s homeless population, clients can seek housing counseling, job skills training and get a warm shower or a meal. But the IRC also boasts a sculpture garden, a newspaper and other creative projects that get their clients involved in the community and give them opportunities to share their experience with others. Author Lorraine Ahearn, who covered the Triad’s homeless as the metro columnist for the Greensboro News & Record for years, talks with The State of Things host Frank Stasio about the self-help model the IRC operates under and how the center is truly making a difference in that region of the state. Also joining the conversation is Liz Seymour, IRC director, and Brain Clarey, editor of YES! Weekly in Greensboro. Listen to the recording of …
The Rocky Mount Telegram Geoffrey Cooper November 4, 2010 Officials throughout the Twin Counties have stepped forward to embrace the growing homeless population in the area. Both Nash and Edgecombe counties Board of Commissioners unanimously approved proclamations at their recent monthly meetings designating November as Homeless Awareness Month for the region. The unified decree from commissioners contain steps officials say they hope will bring a sense of urgency and community involvement. United Community Ministries Executive Director Chris Battle addressed both boards on the current growth of area homelessness — which he dubbed as the “invisible population” — and how it has blossomed beyond shelter walls. Battle — who has served with the local ministry for 10 years — said that his nonprofit has identified more than 500 homeless individuals in the Twin Counties. More than 625 …
New Bern Sun Journal Sue Book October 22, 2010 TRENT WOODS — The problem of homelessness may seem a long way from small-town, rural North Carolina. But, in a point-in-time statewide count on Jan. 26, 2010, New Bern Police counted 12 people sleeping on the streets here and the only homeless shelter in four counties filled to capacity with 20 heads on beds. Homelessness is here. About 110 people from counties across Eastern North Carolina gathered in New Bern on Thursday for a Homelessness Summit hosted at Garber United Methodist Church by groups including Religious Community Services (RCS), East Carolina Council, Craven County Habitat for Humanity, the City of New Bern, and Neuse River Community Development Corporation. Area agencies are attempting to deal with homelessness daily, looking for roofs for real people — often with children …
Temporary shelter for 50 women at the Center of Hope still needs $22,000 to remain open to Nov. 30. Asheville Citizen-Times Mark Price September 27, 2010 The Center of Hope's new overflow shelter on East Fifth Street has taken in its first 25 homeless women and expects to reach capacity in the next two weeks, as more new cots arrive. Salvation Army officials have so far raised $55,000 for the 50-bed project, which is designed to ease overcrowding at the center's regular, 250-bed shelter for women and children. But they remain $22,000 short of what's necessary to keep it operating through Nov. 30, when the Urban Ministry Center opens its winter shelter program, Room in the Inn. As it stands now, there is a three-week shortage, said Deronda Metz, director of the Center of Hope …
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. Quantcast The roughly $6.1 million project by Downtown …
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. …