Last year, the Doorway Project, which placed pallet shelters for the homeless on the ball field at Pomona Park, was controversial.
Both the location – on the only ballfield in Greensboro built specifically for special needs children – and the expense of building a temporary village for homeless people were questioned with Councilmember Zack Matheny, being one of the prime opponents of the plan.
At the Tuesday, Oct. 17 meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to allocate $193,000 to the Interactive Resource Center for the pallet shelter project for this winter.
Matheny had a lot to say about the pallet shelter project, and the issue of providing housing for homeless people in general, but voted in favor of the motion to fund the pallet shelters for a second year.
Matheny said, “This is band-aid on what we are experiencing in our community right now. We’ve talked for over a year with partners in the county and there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the situation has deteriorated rather than improved. This is one band-aid out of some more that we are probably going to do in the next few months. Meanwhile we lost another two unsheltered folks just in downtown alone in the last six weeks.”
Matheny continued, “So my concern is, we pass this band-aid, which I may or may not support, and we think we have done something, but it doesn’t take care of many people. I walked Center City Park today and the amount of people living in the park, whether they are in tents or otherwise, is incredible. Folks are living in front of our buildings. We are perpetuating this and making it worse. We are not making it better.”
Matheny said that he knew that in District 3, the district he represent, “It has gotten substantially worse.”
Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, “This is a band-aid. We know that long term solutions are housing like the Regency and the Oaks, but we don’t have those. The units are not on line so we are forced to spend this money.”
Vaughan said, “We are spending this money on a one-time thing for the pallet shelters when we should be spending it on something else, but we are in a position where these are life and death decisions. So we have to move forward with this.”
Councilmember Tammi Thurm said, “We might as well say it, this is a county function this is not a city function, health and human services and those kinds of things, but until the pressure is on the county to do something, we are going to be in the same position.”
It is called enabling.
Where will the pallets be placed this year? I went past the units last year and it surprised me. It was a gated community with 24 hour security. I guess there are lots of people who would like to say they live in a gated community with that type of security. Just saying!! And we wonder why this city is considered one of the best cities to go to if you need a handout. You know what they say attracts flies. That is what this city has turned into!!!
Everyone feels for homeless but making GSO a destination is not one of them.
Asheville how did it workout for you.
Skip to the rescue! and the narrative has been set big dog swoops in with a big county aid package helping us provide permanent shelter is given his much deserved credit setting some council members at odds with Big dog and are exposed for before the next election. The decision makers are getting tired of the mayor and Abuzaither fickle liberalism and wants die hards not Republican light that’s not the city we are in anymore new blood is being vetted we just have to find a nice way to dump them without the Dems in chaos narrative we are almost there just give us a cycle
Punctuation is your friend.
Boy this is the rhino times comment page talk about the substance English teacher
I say it again until a year or so ago Skip has ignored the homeless. He’s trying to feather his cap (at taxpayers expense) for his future ambitions. I’d like to know how many times he’s wrote a personal check to help any agency supporting homeless people. He lives in a gated compound with homeless living in the woods near him, I’d bet he would say he’s never seen them even though they have been there for years. Don’t be fooled by his sudden interest in the homeless problem. Skip doesn’t do anything that’s not self serving.
Another costly city boondoggle that offers no real value
Why isn’t the motel that was bought over 2 years ago not ready. What’s the hold up
Get rid of these disgusting poeple and that will solve our problems . They are NOt worth bothersing with.