Guilford County government is planning to assemble a major task force of county, city, and state officials to finally come up with a holistic, coordinated solution meant to help alleviate the persistent problem of homelessness in the county.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that, in addition to forming the Guilford County Task Force On Homelessness, he wants the county to use $8 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) money to address the problem.
On Monday, Sept. 19, Alston and Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan met with community partner organizations that fight homelessness. Alston said it became clear to him that, though people were addressing the problem with good intentions, no one was operating on the same page.
“I listened for two hours and everyone has their own plans, their own shelters, their own workers – there is no coordination,” he said.
Alston said he’s forming the new task force to finally deal with the issue that has been persistent in Guilford County for years. He said it will include several county commissioners, the mayors of Greensboro and High Point and also at least one state representative.
Alston also said he is committed to spending $8 million for the coordinated strategy that is created.
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners will need to vote to use ARP money to address the problem, however, Alston said he’s confident, based on his conversations with other elected officials, that the votes will be there to do that.
On Monday, after the meeting, Alston was discussing the plans with other local leaders and he said that Guilford County Manager Mike Halford, Vaughan and Commissioner Kay Cashion were all enthusiastic about the proposal.
He added that the problem is urgent, so he would like to see the task force meet next week for the first time.
He said state representation on the task force was important because the $8 million he expects the county to approve toward the problem will just be a start.
The goal, he added, is to completely eliminate homelessness in Guilford County.
Alston said that annual federal US Department of Housing and Urban Development money isn’t enough either.
“HUD gives us $2.8 million a year and that’s nowhere near enough,” Alston said.
Alston said a unified effort is what’s called for now.
“We need a holistic approach and we need to bring in some experts, some professionals,” he said. “We need to spend more money on the problem and we need to have everyone talking to each other.”
“We won’t solve this problem on our own,” he said of county efforts.
Alston said one thing Guilford County needs is workers riding around at night looking for homeless people and offering immediate help and shelter.
“We should be searching for the homeless,” he said.
One thing that has spurred Alston to action, he said, is that he attended the Mary J. Blige concert at the Greensboro Coliseum on Saturday, Sept. 17 and, on the way home, he saw a homeless person sleeping under a bridge.
“We should never have that in Guilford County,” Alston said.
*holistic
The only thing that Gilford County exceles in is taxing the S*** out of everyone that they can. And they truly have mastered wasting the money that they have extorted from the taxpayers. they collect hondreds of millions of dollars a year and manage to waste it on completely useless projects that do nothing but make the disabled and low income people go without the basic needs to survive.
Though wholistic is commonly regarded as a misspelling, either is acceptable. I have spelled it this way my entire life and actually weighed each equally correct option when writing this and I used the one I know and love.
Will see what happens with this. Lets get statistical data and an update every 3 months, to see that it is working. If things don’t improve drastically in a year, Skip and Nancy need to step down. Have them make that statement. They won’t because they will funnel the money to there buds and non profits and nothing will change. 2 years from now the situation will probably be worse.
Typical political response. Throw more money at it. How many people are we talking about? $8,000,000 buys over 50 houses.
Tell me how you’re going to end this issue before spending $8,000,000, or $10,800,000 counting HUD funds.
“Feed me a fish and I eat today, teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime “
Money is not the solution, education and morals must come first.
Education and morals? How is that going to solve mental illness? How is that going to help a drug addict? How is that going to help a single parent who lost their job and got evicted because the couldn’t afford to fix the one family car?
Plenty of Jobs at Businesses as you drive down the roads. Have Social Services, Shelters etc.. evaluate these folks and get them to work. Thats a start to eliminate Homelessness. You got to have income to pay for housing and pay bills. If you stick them in a motel they will just reduce the value of the property. If you pay for there housing, it will just go in disrepair. They have to have incentive (jobs) to keep things up and jobs produce income to pay and fix things.
We didn’t have this until the LEFT took over. How do you expect the people responsible for these problems, to actually fixit? Just spend more extorted money, and they are off the hook.
So skip went to a concert and saw a person sleeping under a bridge. Where the hell has he been for the last 30 years. The homeless have been here in the city and county for years. Skip a better start would be to give back all the taxpayers money you have gotten for the downtown money pit and put that towards the HOMELESS problem. Be a real man and do what’s right with taxpayer dollars. If you can be a man
Save the 8 Million, forget the commission. The homeless for the most part want to be homeless. Put them on a bus, send them to a Sanctuary City. The onesthat want help offer them help, if they refuse put them on the bus.
Many, some, a little number of beggers work for a company that drops them off and picks them up at a Kotis shopping center on Westover Terrace, just north of Mill St. Their person works the intersection of Wendover and Josephine Boyd Ave. Several times, I’ve seen two casually dressed men stroll up to an asker for money, engage in conversation, and leave heading for Kotis’s parking lot where they park. There is the possibility they work for the city. The stoplight had enough trash to fill a couple of trash bags where a ‘brother can you spare some crypto’ sits most of the day.
Scott Yost, do you have a side job with Facebook, as a literary judge?
No, he doesn’t. I am the language police.
For shame on our local faith community keeping their facilities locked 80 percent of the week. Also for shame on ever government entity and worker that locks public restrooms overnight or tries to criminalize extreme poverty and the mental illnesses that lead to folks that live outside. Giving Skip a committee will enrich some folks who do studies or run nonprofit shells.
Here we go again. Just throw money at it and it will go away. Has not worked in the past and will not work now. Ever thought of just enforcing the laws on the books and not making exceptions. This is especially true for the sleeping in the park. It took Skip to see a man sleeping under a tree to wake him up. It is clear due that statement that he has not really been out seeing what is going on all around with the homeless and panhandlers in what was once a wonderful city.
Regardless of how much money is thrown at this problem, we will NEVER put an end to all homelessness in Guilford County. It is a complete impossibility because many of these individuals do not want to be in a home. Use the money for something worthwhile or give it back. This is tax money after all even though it is coming from a different pot.
Your 30% tax increase at work…or waste…
Listen up. You can stop homelessness by not doing drugs, not drinking alcohol, not dropping out of school, not robbing your neighbor, not abusing your parents, put your life in God’s hands, take a bath,cut your hair, brush your teeth, cut out the tattoos, stop living off the taxpayers and be honest.
Wow everyone… Will solved the worlds problems with just a simple, naive, idiotic, narrow minded thought! Wow. Problem solved everyone.
Please will someone give us Chris’s address so we can send all the homeless to him he can house them with the ILLEGALS he’s so fond of
Yeah, you are probably right. What do you suggest?
I’d like to nominate the Greensboro Housing Authority to handle this matter. Then folks will see the transparency of how they do and do not do things.
Well Skip, where have you been? You just now saw a homeless man sleeping under a bridge? There you are again going around town saying “I didn’t see anything.” Open your eyes or better yet, take off your rose colored glasses.
Didn’t Skip recently go up to D.C.? There are A LOT of homeless people living up there and maybe it gave him some perspective.
Ev’ry body be down on Skip! He dint doo nuffin!
Subsidizing any activity will increase the volume of the activity. The need to spend the windfall from the latest property re-evaluation must be done to guarantee the need for further increases to sustain this financial monster.
It just came to me. I have a simple solution. We don’t have to bus them to Baltimore.
I would suggest a bus-a-caravan to the sanctuary city, and seat of progressive thought in North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
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