Earlier this year, Guilford County Emergency Services expressed serious concerns about responding to calls at the Interactive Resource Center in downtown Greensboro – a place where the homeless go to shower, eat and check email, etc. during the day and night.
Homeless people generally have more medical issues than those who have homes and get consistently good medical care – which makes it important that Emergency Services is able to respond quickly to medical emergencies at the facility.
However, earlier this year, the county’s Emergency Services Department informed the Resource Center that emergency responders did not feel safe responding to calls there in the existing environment.
By all accounts, the problems have gotten worse since then – one could even say, have reached a fever pitch – and emergency responders are as reluctant as ever to respond to calls unless law enforcement officers precede or accompany them.
On Wednesday, July 10, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston told the Rhino Times that this has become a major concern because those people who need EMS response need it very fast, and, in some cases, he said, police officers or sheriff’s deputies may not be instantly available.
Alston said he was having discussions with Guilford County Emergency Services Director Jim Albright as well as with Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers to see what can be done.
“EMS needs to respond quickly,” Alston said. “But they don’t feel safe responding to calls there. Someone may have a gun or a knife and, in some cases, they have to wait for the police to arrive.”
Alston said Albright had expressed major concerns to him about having EMS responders go into the Interactive Resource Center without law enforcement protection.
This isn’t a new problem – it came to the public’s attention earlier this year – however, the problem is getting worse since the number of homeless people accessing the Resource Center has grown, as have the complaints of dangerous activity in and around the Center.
Alston called a special meeting on Monday, July 8 to address multiple issues of concern regarding the Center and, the following day, at a Greensboro City Council meeting, irate citizens who live and work near the IRC told councilmembers in no uncertain terms that the safety issues at the facility had gotten way out of hand.
At a May 2024 Greensboro City Council meeting, Councilmember and Downtown Greensboro Inc. President Zack Matheny was already making the point.
“EMS has sent over a letter that says we do not feel safe when called,” he said at that May meeting. “GPD then has to go clear the area.”
With the increase in overcrowding at the IRC, the facility has seen a rise in the number of people who are elderly and disabled – a group that often requires more medical care than others. It’s also seen a rise in the number of users who seem threatening. That’s a very bad combination that exacerbates the problem of EMS response.
Alston said that he, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan, law enforcement officials, and others are working together on a way to make EMS responders feel safe at the Center.
Alston is getting ready to attend a national conference of county officials in Tampa Bay this week, but he said he was going to ask the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office and the Greensboro Police Department to get together and report back to him what resources might be available to address the problem and how the situation could best be managed.
He said the current security at the facility is clearly inadequate.
“They are unarmed; they don’t have pepper spray, and people won’t listen to them like they would a uniformed officer or deputy,” Alston said.
Alston said it may not be necessary to have armed uniformed officers at the IRC all the time; however, he said, it did seem that, in order for EMS to feel comfortable responding to calls at the facility, there would need to be increased surveillance – though perhaps not a permanent presence.
He said that may be enough to keep city and county law enforcement constantly on the minds of those using the homeless center by having frequent patrols.
“They may act better, since they won’t know when an officer is going to show up,” Alston said.
I am proud that our EMS can see the situation as it really is and they use their brains, unlike Alston and Vaughan. These two pushed the invitation to come and the homeless accepted. Now what are these two going to do? SNAFU.
Exactly! EMS should not have to risk their safety! Anyone driving by can see that the place is NOT safe. The director of IRC, IRC’s board, the mayor and city council should have already addressed the issues there before it got to this point. The IRC wants to push their liberal agenda and seem to think you don’t need rules. THEY ARE WRONG!
You nailed it. The current fiasco at the IRC has been caused by Nancy Vaughn and Skip Alston and no one else. Last year, I spoke of larger cities busing their homeless to “more welcoming cities” like Greensboro. Nancy Vaughn has even commented that she is aware of the homeless arriving in Greensboro by bus. Skippy wants to make homelessness at top priority of his agenda. Well like it or not, it has become a top priority of the city and will only continue to get worse as long as they are welcomed to Greensboro, a “sanctuary city for the homeless.”
Send them to Chapel Hill.
“The homeless” …. hmmm… World looks different up on that horse you’re riding on. Be a shame if you fell off
So Sc what exactly do you do to help the homeless please enlighten us.
Hey Danny, didn’t you also make a remark about the ‘Rent-A-Docs’ there as well.
Whoever foots the bill for the IRC Security staff should 1st make sure that a very respectable,
and highly elite security firm is retained. This security firm would have 100 % people skills along
with an extensive background in tactical armed security, crowd management, basic life support,
officer-client relations, dealing with mental & drug
related issues and a good rapport with local law enforcement. Stop settling for the rag tag security firms of the 50s, 60s, and 70s……!
Have a Security Supervisor on duty during peak hours at the IRC working with the line officers. If you
reach out to the right security firm you will find a lot
of these ARMED CONTRACT SECURITY OFFICERS come from the ranks of being retired law enforcement or military law enforcement. Please
don’t listen to this ill advised information from this
person here in GUILFORD COUNTY who calls himself our SHERIFF. The IRC is in need of 1st class security
protection and if the GPD is unable to provide this or the Sheriffs Office then this 3rd option would be ideal or either mix it up between the 3.
Ben Bennett (Retired)
NC A&T STATE UNIVERSITY PD
911 Communications Division
Greensboro, NC
40 Year veteran in law enforcement, corrections,
tactical armed security management, and 911
public safety communications.
Why doesn’t the IRC do what some communities are doing. Some communities are paying GPD for additional uniformed officers to patrol their neighborhoods. That is what happens in Adams Farm. Off-duty GPD officers work part-time using their police vehicles and equipment to provide additional police presence in the community. Adams Farm pays a GPD coordinator to schedule these services. That is my understanding of what happens in this one community.
Wake up Skip Alston and any other quasi leaders in Guilford County! This didn’t happen overnight and our Police and Sheriff’s Departments have ignored enforcing the laws of vagrancy, soliciting, public drunkenness, and lewdness for years. In this county and city of lawlessness not only does the public need to be armed and trained to protect themselves, all first responders must me as well!
I think we need more EMS and less firefighters. 99% of firefighters have never been to a serious fire or been a life-threatening situation. We need about 25% of the firefighters that we employ.
Why are they paid to full year salary for working less than 100 days a year? Why are they able to go to work get there at 8 o’clock in the morning, everybody jumps on the firetruck and goes to breakfast and stays gone two hours?. Why do taxpayers have to pay their salary while they’re doing this? Can every city employee do this? Can every city employee clock in at 8 o’clock and leave and stay on two hours for breakfast? Why does the media continue to cram down our throat what heroes these people are?
– EMS is a function of the County. GFD is a function of the City of Greensboro. These are two different budgets. Cutting firefighters from the City budget won’t leave extra money to fund EMS which the County funds.
– Firefighters are on duty from when they get to the station until they leave. At any moment they must be ready to respond to a call. They must either be paid for the entire time they are at the station or let them respond from their homes as volunteer firefighters do.
– The total amount of hours a firefighter works is equal to 40 hr/week for 52 weeks. They work 24 hours, then are off 48 hours. They don’t get holidays off.
– When they “go to breakfast for two hours” they may be grocery shopping for the meals they’ll be eating later in the day; doing inspections at the strip mall where they’re parked; doing business visits to pre-plan fire attack at new locations, you don’t know why the truck is parked there for so long.
– You’d be surprised how many civil workers aren’t actually working up to two hours each day. When firefighters aren’t on calls they’re checking equipment, updating paperwork, installing smoke detectors, doing inspections or pre-plans, restocking trucks, cleaning the station, training, and doing road studies.
– Firefighters are at risk every time they respond to emergencies in fire trucks. Twenty-five percent of line-of-duty deaths involve collisions or crashes. They also have a high rate of heart attack deaths. (I don’t know where you got the data the “99% have never been to a serious fire or been {in} a life-threatening situation”. I think that’s BS. As a former volunteer firefighter/EMT, I frequently experienced serious fires and life-threatening situations. Paid firefighters have longer careers and are now responsible for HazMat, High Rise, and Trench Rescues often not required before 2001. Each call has the potential to be a life-threatening situation.
Our community needs more EMTs (and Deputies in the Sheriff’s Office) but that’s a County budget issue and not one of the City. We need more police officers which the City must include in their budget. It’s important to know who pays for what.
I agree that calling every emergency personnel a “hero” is overreaching. Responding to emergencies and rescuing people is their job, just like the police or paramedics. When a civilian rescues someone from a burning building calling them a hero fits because that’s not the norm. Since 2001 the term “hero” has been overused by the media devaluing its meaning.
So Sc what are you doing to help the situation
Would it surprise you to know that a LOT of city employees do exactly that and more. Having worked in city facilities for a short time I can attest to this fact.
SMH. With all their’feel good’useless ideas, likr bike lanes with state approved majic paint that repels auto’s hitting cyclists. It is eaier to spend other people’s (stolen ) money! Dont forget about Skippy, Nancy and Kathy selling the Hebrew school property toVommunist China and housing about 600 illegal aliens tbere and in the old Deluxe Check printers building!
Alston can house some of those people because he operates well with criminals and people who keep trouble going. They put cheddar in his pocket.
Let them stay at Skip or Nancy’s house.
Or better yet, just close the place down…. remember “if you build it, they will come”? Well, they’re here.
Officers are readily available because…….THERE AIN’T ENOUGH F-ing OFFICERS! TU hyp-skip. Plenty-O-Verk for the Faithful, though.
Skippy & Nancy are a joke. We need them out of Greensboro. They do nothing to help the citizens of this great city. First, they call in the rioters and let the City burn, and now they keep giving it away to foreign countries & criminals bussed here from other countries.
They created a bad deal that’s now beyond worse, and innocent people may get hurt or worse because of bad decisions and poor management. Exactly how many boots on the ground hours are Skippy and Nancy actually spending at the IRC trying to work with the very people they claim they want to help??
Those persons are NOT worth helping anyway!!! Let them take care of themselves.
Simple solution. . .close the IRC. . .the people who use it will find other places to go. In the end, the “do-gooders” on the council will continue to want to have local, state, and federal money to take care of these people, yet they can’t seem to find the money to fix potholes in our streets or pick up trash. . .priorities, priorities, etc.
First as a former professional firefighter with over 10 years of service scene safety is first priority!! The IRC needs to be closed down and replaced with multiple small resource centers. That place is being mismanaged and funded by Greensboro City! An investigation into the personal relationship between the former director and current director needs to happen! The board needs close this place!
now that we know where ‘problems’ concentrate, concentrate ‘solutions’ closer !
How in THE WORLD is Kristina Singleton STILL the Director???? I would not donate 1 cent to an agency that has someone charged with repeatedly stealing!!!! How can anyone have any confidence that the money they donate is not also being stolen!!!!