The group of people that appeared to living on the sidewalk in downtown Greensboro next to Center City Park, should have a roof over their heads tonight.
The group which was in fact two families living in one car near the park, had pretty much set up camp on the sidewalk between Center City Park and North Elm Street. The park is designed to be a good place to hang out with benches and chairs and this group had made themselves at home causing some consternation for people who live or work downtown.
City Councilmember Michelle Kennedy, who is the executive director of the Interactive Resource Center (IRC) said she got a call from the Greensboro Police Department Friday morning asking if she could help because the police had received several calls about the group camped out on the sidewalk.
The IRC is a day center providing services for people experiencing homelessness, but not a shelter. Kennedy said it was fortunate that she had a team available that could go and assess the situation.
Kennedy said, “Once we identified that there were children involved it became a priority for us and we were glad to be able to help particularly because of the children.”
Kennedy said that the families weren’t camped out on the sidewalk as had been reported. She said, “They were actually living out of a car parked at the edge of the park.”
She said that after the initial contact, two members of the group had come to a job fare at the IRC and that the IRC was able to get them in touch with services who could provide shelter for the two families.
City Councilmember Justin Outling who works in a building adjacent to Center City Park said that he had also been called about the group camping in front of the park and he said the response to provide services for the group was slowed because of a jurisdictional question. Outling said the question was, “Who is responsible for the management of that area? Is it under the management of GDPI [Greensboro Downtown Parks, Inc]?”
Outling said, “If people are in need of services. We want to make sure that people are provided those services.”
He said the question about who was in charge, held up providing services to this group and “It would be helpful to have some clarity.”
Mr Outing , how about taking charge, looking into it and then making an executive decision like Ms Kennedy did. I am not a fan of hers but she did see a problem, didn’t pass the buck and found a solution. Thank you Ms Kennedy for doing your job as a council member unlike others in the past.
This is the most frustrating thing about City and County services, being passed around while people decide the “jurisdictional question” of who it is that should handle your situation. This was supposed to have been solved by the “No Closed Door” services policy of the late 1980s, but the system has never worked because no one knows about the services outside of their own and everyone is so worried about whose pot of money the services will be paid from. Its clear the delivery the delivery of services to people isn’t the priority, only the illusion that said services are available and getting names on a waiting list to justify ongoing programs that continue to generate public tax money and charitable funding.
I would be a more positive person if there were some improvement since paying attention to these issues over 25+ years ago! but I’ve noticed very little! just a change in program names and the revolving door of employees who work for the agencies. It irritates the fool out of me. I’m glad politicians were able to help these two families out but what about everyone else that gets caught in the twisty maze of trying desperately to get local and state services? Should they all come downtown and camp at the park or will this get the Council and Commissioners to seriously look at the difficulty of obtaining services in our area? (Who am I kidding. That will never change.)
We have a situation where two families (10 people in the picture) are living in a car on a downtown street. Something seems amiss here. How long did it take for someone to take some action? Glad there was an organization that could help out.
I am one of those in this picture and would like 2 say we only got temporary help and only cause the people in the building complained now that these shelters are not what you think some try to bring you down and are 30 days it will take time for some to get back on there feet. I will be back were I started from so how are we to change this.
I gave my name and will be willing to help others that are in the same situating feel free to contact me cause I want to change things.
Thank you