Everyone knows that the city of Greensboro and Guilford County as a whole have a tremendous problem with homelessness, and, by the very nature of homelessness, it’s hard to get exact numbers on the situation.
Despite that inherent difficulty, each year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development requires Continuum of Care organizations – like the collective battling homelessness in Guilford County – to count the number of homeless in the service area; and it’s almost time for what’s known as the annual “Point-in-Time Count,” which is a two-day collaborative effort to get a good assessment as to how many people in Guilford County have nowhere to live.
Any count of this nature is going to be inexact; however, the results help local leaders and HUD officials identify the extent of the problem in communities across the country. The effort counts both sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness and the data collected is used partially to determine the services and resources provided in different communities meant to address the problem.
In every odd-numbered year, like 2025, the effort across the country is more comprehensive: Instead of just counting people served by shelters and local organizations, groups of volunteers take to the streets and attempt to count, at a single point in time, all of the homeless in the community.
This year the count in Guilford County will start on Wednesday, Jan. 29 and continue through Thursday, Jan. 30. In addition to the teams that hit the streets and survey the homeless, volunteers are needed for support roles.
Many time shifts are available for those who do wish to participate. Pictured above are a group of volunteers who took part in a night shift in the 2023 count.
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners made addressing the problem of homelessness one of its major points of emphasis two years ago and the Greensboro City Council has had numerous highly publicized discussions and troubles battling the problem – yet homelessness in the area doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
In fact, problems at the Interactive Resource Center – a Greensboro nonprofit that attempts to help the homeless by providing them a place to clean up, check emails and get out of the cold – ended its around the clock operations in late 2024 after complaints from nearby businesses and residents, a slew of 911 calls from the area and a shooting outside the facility.
The Resource Center wasn’t meant to be a homeless shelter and it has no beds; however, it was, for much of last year, a place where people could go at all hours of the day or night and get warm and sleep in a chair.
After the downtown Greensboro facility began running 24/7, it started to look more and more like a shelter.
Since it is such a central locus for those experiencing homelessness, the shorter hours of operation for the downtown center may contribute to the difficulty of getting an accurate count this year.
Guilford County, the cities of Greensboro and High Point, area non-profits, churches and others are working together and working hard to address the problem; however, the homeless situation is still overwhelming in the county and it’s an especially sad situation in January and February when temperatures at night can get down into the teens or even lower.
This type of feet-on-the-ground count is so important that some Continuum of Care organizations conduct it every year even though they’re not required by HUD to do so.
In addition to conducting the count, volunteers have often provided “Blessing Bags” to the homeless – that is, bags of toiletries and other necessities distributed to those who are counted.
Here’s a list of some of the partners Guilford County has thanked for their contributions to this effort in the past:
- The Volunteer Center
- High Point University
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Center for Housing and Community Studies)
- Welfare Reform Liaison Project
- United Way of High Point
- Open Door Ministries of High Point
- The Servant Center
- East Market Street Seventh-Day Adventist Church
- Women’s Resource Center in Greensboro
- Jamestown Presbyterian Church
Hello. For years as a cook I thought a food truck for the homeless that doubles as a roaming mailbox would help. Just be at the same places at the same days and the homeless can get simple things, like identifications, tax and family contacts etc.. try getting a job with no I’d or address? It’s not only hard it’s illegal. It may help to count them as well. Just a thought.
David, That’s exactly what the Interactive Recourse Center does. They also provide showers, laundry facilities, computer/internet access and more. Check out their website!
A very good thought David. As long as Greensboro and Guilford County continue the open invitation, they will come. It’s another government created problem for the taxpayer. It is a very hard problem to solve, if it can be solved. I don’t know but it seems a certain portion of folks prefer this lifestyle and others need help. I hope the efforts of the volenteers work but I doubt it will.
If skip keeps raising the property tax i will be homeless soon.
You and lots of others! Or else we’ll starve to so we can keep our homes, pay the other ever-rising utilities and insurance bills.
But my my my Tyronne doesn’t Skip look dapper in his puffy coat. I swear I think I saw him under a bridge last week
KARMA is coming Skip. Get ready
Perhaps I’m blind as a bar but I don’t see info or who to contact to join the count. Im very familiar w homeless camps and spots throughout a lot of Greensboro. I take food and essentials out almost nightly.
If the goal is to merely to count the number of homeless, why? The number could be used to compare current and past numbers. For what purpose? A slate of questions should be asked the homeless to arrive at why they are homeless, where did they come from, why did they choose Guilford County to locate, if not from the area originally, etc. The answers could be scanned to detect commonalities in the homeless population to give insight into addressing the problem. Without knowing the homeless’ motivations, how can the problem be fixed? If you want to know what someone is thinking, ask them.
According to the Point In Time data, Greensboro-High Point has actually made tremendous strides re: homelessness.
In 2007, Greensboro-High Point’s overall homeless count was 1,182. Just 10 years ago in 2014, it was 897. Last year in 2024, it was 665. Overall homelessness is actually decreasing according to the only and best data we have.
However, what *has* risen is the number of unsheltered homeless.
In 2024 it was 234, the highest it’s been since as far back as the data goes in 2017 and only the second time in that span it was over 200.
This coincides with fewer shelter beds available in the area. Turns out you get what you (don’t) pay for.
Yes, you are correct. One of the issues is that they lived in those abandoned buildings on Gate City (then Lee Street). When UNCG tore down the buildings, it sent the homeless downtown. The “crisis” is that we can now see them in downtown rather then not seeing them on Gate City.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing this data. Nice to see a comment with facts and data. Seems to both counter and explain the argument many believe here that GSO is a travel destination for the homeless.
Homelessness really took off after Deinstitutionalization: The mentally ill were deinstitutionalized.
We need Insane asylums, also known as lunatic asylums or mental asylums. We need lots of them.
Nope. We need affordable healthcare. Most mental illness is treatable for far less the cost of locking the ill away.
I’ve been a door-to-door salesman for over 30 years (although I do less personal selling now). It’s reckoned that around 10 percent of the adult US population is mentally ill in some form or another.
That’s right!
Some people are mental, and you can’t do much but take the abuse and excuse yourself because you’re on their property. And there are the rude assh*les.
But you’re right that there seem to be more nutcases than there used to be. And they seem emboldened nowadays.
We need a plan or GSO needs a plan. They have been working 3-5 years to get a facility open and are yet to open it .
The homeless problem can not be solved but can be managed . It is a horrible problem and nobody likes it but no one has been able to .nsolve it. There is no doubt that ANY COMMUNITY THAT EMBRACES HOMELESSNESS WILL BE DESTROYED. YOU HAVE
A GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT WILL NOT HELP THEMSELVES AND WILL GO ANYWHERE THEY ARE WELCOME.
Bottom line is there is no solution and any community that tries to solve it will be destroyed. The only thing that can solve it is personal responsibility supported by jobs and housing.
What GSO has to decide is are we willing to throw away everything the community has built to try and save a group of people that are not willing to help themselves???????
Mentally ill and personal responsibility are mutually exclusive. Homelessness is a very visible sign that our capitalistic system is out of balance. What’s your solution MWH…debtor prisons?
I’ve been homeless in Guilford County the past couple of years and have seen first hand the issues that arise for the unsheltered as well as the community as a whole and can say that no matter what you do the problem will not go away and will only get marginally “better” before getting much worse!
As folks have said Greensboro is a great place to live and not have anything. It doesn’t take a long search to find a decent free meal 3 times a day being given by various organizations and many times you have options with the possibility of doubling up at multiple locations. There are certain days where basic necessities are given out like Halloween candy with surprising frequency and there is no shortage of Good Samaritans seeking to give a bit of charity however they are told it could help.
Many of the people out here that I speak with quality for and/or receive benefits checks and utilize these resources as a free form of welfare and live fairly comfortably doing so.
Most people aren’t from the City but have come because of how easy it is to survive out here and they aren’t wrong! That number will continue to grow and the homeless encampments will be much more commonplace. It will embolden folks even more and add to their growing sense of entitlement. It doesn’t fit all of us, that’s for sure, but a change is needed .
Thank you for your insight Boogi. “If you build it they will come “, and Greensboro is living proof.
I continue to suggest that the homeless population must have some sort of employment for the benefit they receive. We are all aware of the old old adage “give me a fish and I eat today, teach me to fish and I eat forever “.
A sense of responsibility is necessary to live in society, not a sense of entitlement.
Where do you get your free meals? Most only serve twice a day. Just curious.
The homeless I have spoken with in the food lines back when we hosted breakfast downtown on weekend before the city killed it, were from surrounding communities that offered very little in way of homeless support. Makes sense they would travel into an urban center. But never met one that traveled from any other major urban centers like Durham or Charlotte. But that was a few years ago.
A problem that isn’t being seen possibly is the large amount of families and people living in one room hotels. They pay over 800.00 after they have been there 6 months. This does not include clean sheets (although they say they clean them) towels etc. That is a LOT of money to pay for a room. Some of these hotels are filthy but at least they have a place. Not sure what can be done but more affordable living options should be available.
The yearly process in “ It’s Time To Count Every Homeless Person In Guilford County” is such a joke. Each year during the “count”, in the coldest weather, hundreds of the homeless temporarily go indoors, securing temporary shelter with friend, relatives, or paying for motel, room in a home, even renting “the laundry room floor” from homeowner or renter, anywhere out of the cold. The majority of the homeless are people who simply cant afford housing and cant secure housing from a landlord willing to accept lowering their rent in return for a Sec 8 voucher. Homeless does not mean stupid. Counting homeless people at a time when they definitely are not around, well, what do you call that?
So I am currently homeless and have been for two and a half years.
I have a few points from what people have mentioned here:
– GSO is an easy place to be homeless, apparently?
I would like to point out that being homeless ANYWHERE, even in a shelter, is not easy in any shape, form or fashion under any circumstances. You don’t even understand or comprehend the mental determination, acumen and strength it takes to walk around this city, and especially within the homeless community, to merely collect things you need to barely survive. Need fresh water? Often that’s a mile walk from where many homeless reside. Food? Once again, miles a day walked. A shower? If you mean the 4 hours a day the IRC offers them 5 days a week max, then a basic count of approx 300 homeless using these “Amenities” get to have 4 minutes of showering a week – each. Less on the weeks when the IRC is closed on a Friday for “Staff training”.
Then there’s the resilience required to walk in close
proximity to large numbers of those who you don’t or barely know, and instantly have to asses: threat level, mental health stability, addiction possibility, confrontation assessment, weapon carrier/concealment concern, livelihood of assault/verbal altercation — and then on top of all that, show the world you have no fear or an ounce of vulnerability for fear of becoming victimized.
The above may go to show some homeless peoples attitudes when you encounter them as ya know, not only other homeless people are a threat. There’s plenty of housed people who are a threat to the homeless, albeit usually to a lesser extent and more likely verbal abuse only.
Many of the housed, let alone well housed and in charge of this city/county/state/nation, wouldn’t stand a chance living out here on the streets and don’t understand even what I’ve already typed. How they’re in a place to make educated decisions about what’s best for the homeless is the single factor in understanding why the homelessness issue won’t be resolved.
– The yearly/bi-yearly counts are *Insert helpful verb here*
These counts are wildly inaccurate due to numerous points that include the following:
-People who manage to raise enough for a hotel room for a night or so when it’s so cold.
-The city’s new provision of eliminating homeless encampments and ‘Spots’ and going in and throwing all their belongings away merely makes the homeless less visible and more difficult to locate (which, as we know, is exactly what they wish to happen). The more you victimize a group, the more reclusive they will become in mainstream society. Less options for the charity of loving folk and neighbors, means more forced to crime to merely survivor with food and water just to survive.
– Mental health this and that:
This is a large reason for homelessness and will never be resolved with current thought processes by leaders whom remove and reduce budgets for vulnerable groups. You could probably remove ~50% of the “problem” at least with proper mental health funding – and no, that doesn’t include locking people up in “Looney bins”.
Proper outreach and community health choices for those people who need it that’s properly funded by government would be the best option. Although then again, government equates to red tape, so yeah. Maybe not.
I could talk about this subject at length, but it shall not change under the current ‘regime’.
Maybe the City can help the LA homeless by offering them homeless-in-residence here? They could fly them here for openers.
They could also county the homeless twice, the mebbe they could extort more money from the taxpayer.
Just a suggestion, I try to help out…..
I was in Little Wally yesterday. As I was going to my car, I saw an old geezer (I are one) seated behind the wheel of an old bummed-out Mercury Marquis. The engine was off. He was scarfing some food he bought in the store. His rear seat and passenger seat were stuffed with belongings. I spoke to him briefly, he said he was living in his car. I followed him across the street to fill up has gas tank.
Our duly-elected socialist/communist govt downtown is confiscating the citizens (you and me) wealth, to make us all dependent on the Central Government.
Some of us save/invest during our working years; but our government is confiscating it thru taxation, regulation (CA); and most of all, inflation. Everyone pays more for everything because it is the policy of the LEFT to confiscate the citizen’s wealth.