In recent years, Guilford County has begun playing a larger role in addressing the problem of homelessness in the area.
At the Thursday, Feb. 17 afternoon work session, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners discussed the possibility of building a hotel or purchasing an existing one to be used to house homeless individuals and families when area shelters were at capacity.
The commissioners discussed the matter because they’ve been getting reports of homeless people with no place to stay, who end up sleeping in a car or on the streets when homeless shelters are full.
Commissioner Carlvena Foster said that she, for one, had been hearing often that the homeless seeking help had no place to stay.
“We hear the next day that some mother and father had to sleep in the car,” Foster said at the work session in the Blue Room of the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro. “That seems to be the story that we get every week.”
The county has been housing some homeless people who have COVID-19 in area hotels so it already has a relationship with some places that have vacancies – but, apparently, some hotels don’t want to house groups of homeless people for the county.
Commissioner Skip Alston suggested at the work session that the county may have to take more serious action by building a hotel for the homeless or buying an existing hotel in the county.
“If we are going to be in it, we need to be in it to win it,” Alston said, “and we need to solve this problem.”
He added that the problem isn’t a lack of available space.
“It’s not that there is a shortage of rooms out there – there’s a shortage of collaboration with those folks that are owning those hotels,” the chairman said. “Any hotels, any night – they are not going to be more than 45 percent or 50 percent occupied. They are not going to fill up all these rooms every night. They might have 15 or 20 rooms available.”
The chairman instructed county staff to “think outside the box” and come up with real solutions.
“Can we develop an inventory of rooms, so that when we have a family that is homeless we can put them there?” Alston asked staff and other commissioners.
The county is already spending about $84,000 a month housing the homeless in existing hotels, Alston said.
“We might be able to better use the money,” Heck we can partner with the city – we can buy a hotel ourselves. It can be solved but we have to have the will and the funds.”
Guilford County Manager Mike Halford pointed out that addressing homelessness is a relatively new area for Guilford County government.
Typically, addressing the problem has been left more to cities and community organizations.
“I think what I’m hearing is that the county does need to move more in this space because typically this wasn’t a space the county was in,” Halford said at the meeting.
Halford said it was becoming clear that the county needed to move more rapidly into addressing the problem of homelessness than it has in the past.
Guilford County has no responsibility to accommodate homeless people and must avoid this everlasting entanglement. Any accommodation toward this problem would only increase the flow of these indigents. Essentially, the problem is NOT resolvable, not by this county, the city of Greensboro, or anyone else.
One only needs to look at the news reports on the homeless people problem in LA, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and other large cities. No amount of money spent will ever resolve this problem.
Guilford County commissioners must be smoking the weed imported from DC during their recent visit.
Do you have some real information that Greensboro’s homeless problem is caused by indigents? I doubt you do but thought I would ask. My assumption is that you are basing your comment off of fear of the Mexico board but have no real information that homelessness is an immigrant issue.
Oops. Completely misread your comment. My mistake.
Sorry chris indigents are different than ILLEGAL immigrants not sure which you are
What could possibly go wrong here? On paper this is a wonderful idea. In reality it is a dumpster fire of epic proportions. Drugs, guns, mental challenges, and does the federal government or state government or CITY government pay for this? Do the residents need jobs? Do they get meals, medical care, DDS And needles?
Do they have RA’s like colleges? Good luck
Steve, in answer to your question about who would pay for this boondoggle, no, the federal, state or city government would NOT pay for this, nor would the county government, even though it is the county discussing it. It would be paid for by TAXPAYERS, and no one else.
Currently $84k/month….maybe the county can help these people get some of the numerous jobs we are told are available. How about stopping the gravy train and have people work, pay taxes and contribute verses living off the govt.
I think many in the homeless community would agree with you. Most homeless are homeless due to a catastrophic event, such as loss of job, loss of transportation, etc… Giving them temp housing is a great leg up to getting back on their feet toward independence. Which again, most of them really do want.
So, is this a CITY problem or a COUNTY problem? Sounds like we’re going to have a turf war over who spends money on a homeless situation.
Should we be betting on Queen Nancy or King Skip?
Here we go again has the county and city leaders forgotten the old Royal Villa motel on Meadowview of a couple years ago that the city condemned. What a taxpayer fiasco that was and still is. Stupid is as Stupid does.
I’m thinking that buying an existing hotel would be more cost-effective. I imagine there’s more than one in the county that’s still in distress due to pandemic impacts.
Most homeless people are homeless due to drugs, alcohol, etc. Jesus said the poor will always be there. Make sure there’s plenty of work and no one would be homeless. Last I checked, there’s 11+ million jobs available nationwide. Some people just looking for permanent handouts. This is an idea that really needs thinking. If a family really needs temporary help, that may be a good idea if done right and there are means to get them in permanent housing and above average wages Jon.
That is a very narrow view of homelessness. Many are homeless due to loss of job, spousal abuse, loss of transportation, lack of child care, etc…. So many in the US live pay check to pay check that it only takes one or two negative events to cause them to loose their housing. The most visible tend to be chronic homeless that have mental health issues or drug and alcohol.
If you really want to learn more, reach out to your local church and find an opportunity to volunteer working with the homeless. It can be very eye opening.
If the homeless had money for a hotel room, most of them probably wouldn’t be homeless. So why should taxpayers foot the tab for rooms for them to destroy? If our bleeding heart brainless city council members think this is such a great idea, let the pay for it personally , out of their own pockets. Or maybe they should each adopt a few dozen homeless persons and take them into their own homes. Any takers?
Such callous regard for the least among us is very sad. I don’t believe there is a government solution to the growing homeless problem, especially not short term spending on hotel rooms. The biggest issue is we have hundreds of churchs in our county that are locked up 90 percent of the time and the pastors and congregations have become only interested in growing their ministries in trivial ways that deny and overlook the basic tenets of all religions to help others and lift up those on poverty, illness, and distress. So sad our religious leaders are as feckless as our politicians.
As a wise Guilford County Official once told me, these people could mess up a wet dream. This is not a government function and should never be one. If you want a mess, give it to them to handle. Government involvement will only exacerbate the problem. Private charities are the best solution unless these commissioners are okay with our streets looking like those in Philadelphia.
Just saying that maybe to some people including u and that snooty council member should look in the mirror and realize y’all have the same ability to ruin wet dreams … When u decide to allocate funds to renovate expand or build etc or improve Bryan Blvd Adams farm and such uppity no idea what it’s like to be down and out or even so stuck in addiction or mentally disturbed your unable to exist normally … Why don’t u take one of them lowlife people that are ruining those wet dreams your having ( to bad cause it may be all the play ur getting as close minded as you seem …) Take one and help them into a rehab …
Instead of accommodating the homeless, what if our taxpayer funded, elected officials worked towards reducing or eliminating the homeless problem? Supporting policies, ideals, and methodologies that strengthen the economy would be a good first step. Stop embracing problems that create more homelessness.
One only needs to look at Democrat run areas like Detroit, San Franscisco, Portland, etc., to see the results of typical Democrat policies.
This board of commissioners instead opts for the lazy approach – “Trying to solve the problem of homelessness is too hard! Let’s just build them somewhere to live instead!”
Let’s assume for a moment that free housing for homeless is prudent. There is no reason to even consider building new housing for homeless considering the scarcity and exorbitant price for building supplies. There are numerous empty large buildings vacant and have been for long time. Harris Teeter on W. Market is just one example. So forget new building. Now who administers the housing ? You know the devil is in the details. Many have mentioned previous experiences with providing housing (Meadowview)which resulted in negative outcome so one wonders why we want to do a repeat!. Others mentioned jobs hinting at maybe applicants should have a job or be in process of attempting to obtain one. You know one must have an address to get a job. How much Adm money would filtering,verifying that take? Others mentioned addiction and other mental illness as typical of many homeless. Essentially the dilemma is untreated illness. So let’s don’t waste money on bandaid of housing but rather treating appropriated very ill people and providing employment skills first. IRC has the right formula for homeless. Why utilize their template?? And let’s collaborate with other agencies,businesses,etc.
“It’s not that there is a shortage of rooms out there – there’s a shortage of collaboration with those folks that are owning those hotels,” the chairman said. “Any hotels, any night – they are not going to be more than 45 percent or 50 percent occupied. They are not going to fill up all these rooms every night. They might have 15 or 20 rooms available.”
Hey, Skip–got an extra bedroom or two? You could set an example of ‘collaboration’ & welcome a few homeless into your digs–your neighbors would surely not object even if your ‘guests’ trash your yard, urinate in public, shoot-up on the front lawn–you know, typical homeless activity–AND the kind of ‘activity’ any respectable hotel/motel would naturally avoid IF they want to ensure a safe, clean & quiet establishment. Would YOU want to be next door to a drug addict, an alcoholic, or schizophrenic? I think not. Don’t blame owners for looking out for THEIR property–anyone with an IQ above single digits would do the same.
How about a roach motel? Very cost efficient, and it will increase the supply of bird food. No maintenance required.
Just saying that maybe to some people including u and that snooty council member should look in the mirror and realize y’all have the same ability to ruin wet dreams … When u decide to allocate funds to renovate expand or build etc or improve Bryan Blvd Adams farm and such uppity no idea what it’s like to be down and out or even so stuck in addiction or mentally disturbed your unable to exist normally … Why don’t u take one of them lowlife people that are ruining those wet dreams your having ( to bad cause it may be all the play ur getting as close minded as you seem …) Take one and help them into a rehab …
There’s no need to use a inventory when such places as the big towers that they all purchased crack and other such good from off meadow view and randleman right behind the precision auto tune Stephanie’s 2 … Remodel and renovate that and 50 + buildings that exist and could be cheap for the city to renovate and help the issue