As people are struggling to keep warm this Winter, here's a thought about helping the less fortunate and another example of hidden Gov't Corruption.
Why is it that as Charlotte Officials receive more and more Federal money earmarked for Homelessness Prevention, Charlotte's Homeless numbers are continuing to rise?
Charlotte's has very few shelters to house its Homeless citizens and Children.
There's hardly any Affordable, Decent Housing available for Charlotte's Low Income citizens, so....
Where or what is the Federal Funding ($3Million in Stimulus Funds, etc.) to help combat this crisis being used for?
Inquiring minds would like to know why are Charlotte-Mecklenburg City/ County Officials sitting on this money or wasting it instead of helping people get off the street?
Where did the $3 Million dollars in Stimulus Funds disappear to? How was it spent? To Whom? For What projects?
Charlotte Voters and Inquiring minds would like to know now!
What Happened To Charlotte's Hall House?
There are nearly three-thousand homeless children in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system.
This time last year, many of those kids had a place to stay when the weather was cold. Here, at Hall House.
This year, though...that's not an option.
Hall House is still standing in uptown Charlotte. But it's vacant -- totally empty.
That means many of those kids and their families are back on the streets...braving the 20-degree temps...and searching for help.
Our calls and e-mails to the Charlotte Housing Authority went unanswered today, but in weeks like this one it's easy to understand why the need is so great.
You may remember that it was once for sale...and not in the best of condition. And the community came to the rescue.
Volunteers showed up with tools and paint brushes to get this building in shape for the new arrivals. Folks really had to work hard to make this place livable.
It was home for more than 60 families, but after just a few months, of those families went packing, and some we understand have drifted back into reality of being homeless again.
A number of agencies did step up to the plate including the Salvation Army's women's shelter.
We found one place in Dilworth that also opened its doors to the displaced.
Some of those youngsters ended up at least for awhile at The Relatives in Dilworth.
Staffers here are aware issues that affect homeless children.
It is a group they call Charlotte's hidden population.
The children who stay here range in age between seven and 17, and
over the last year they've had to give more than 300 local children a place to stay.
"They find places to sleep sometimes behind bridges under buildings wherever they can go.
They're out in the cold. When the temperature goes down you wonder how the kids are keeping warm. It's kind of scary. "
The need is great and especially when you see an empty building like this that was once full of life.
Many people are asking the question...why. WBTV will continue to ask that question until we get answers.
Could Apartments For Charlotte's Homeless Open This Year?
Advocates for the homeless believe an apartment complex recently bought by Charlotte Housing Authority could be put to use a year sooner than expected, to fill gaps in sheltering the homeless.
Deronda Metz of the Salvation Army Women and Children's Shelter said she's been talking to the Housing Authority about the possibility.
"They're looking into it -- whether it would even be possible to get some units ready this year," said Metz. "If it's possible, I think that they can make it happen."
The apartments, off Wendover Road, have 230 units total. About 60 of those would be designated for homeless families, once they are renovated. The plan is to give the families who live there not just shelter, but job training and other social services.
Kathy -- she didn't want us to use her last name -- knows what it's like to need the help.
"I've slept outside before, and it's no fun," she said. Kathy is disabled from a back injury and pins in her neck, and lives at the Salvation Army Center of Hope while her social worker helps her qualify for disability payments and housing.
She's grateful for a bed at the shelter, because she knows space is tight. "I don't know where I'd be without them," she said.
Metz said this is the soonest the Center has filled up when compared to other winters. All 200 beds are taken and another 27 people are sleeping on mats on the floor. With temperatures dropping below freezing at night, Women with children continue to show up, and Metz doesn't want to turn anyone away.
"That's what makes our job hard, because we're dealing with people," said Metz.
There's still a lot of talking and a lot of work to be done to make the apartments available so soon, she said. But there's always hope.
"It would make a lot of families happy," she said.
Charlotte Cold Snap Sends Crowds To Shelters
Predictions of yet another week of sub-freezing temperatures have emergency shelters bracing for overflow crowds in coming days.
The Men's Shelter of Charlotte reports that it's taking in about 531 men a night - a jump of 31 in the past week. And the Salvation Army's Center of Hope is housing 294 women - 94 more than its bed capacity. Of that 294, 114 are children.
Dealing with an influx during cold snaps is nothing new to either. But charities say the recession has changed expectations. It's possible that Charlotte has more homeless this year, and they'll soon be standing in line at the door.
"Last year in cold snaps, we averaged about 520," said Carson Dean of the men's shelter. "But because we're seeing so many people we've never seen before, we're bracing for the average to start creeping up to 600. I am worried: What will we do if the number gets consistently over 600? We'll have to draw up a new plan."
At the Center of Hope, preparations are being made to find beds for at least an extra 50 women a night. The center sends those it can't serve to the Urban Ministry Center's Room in the Inn program, which puts the homeless in local houses of worship.
But an increasing number of women are showing up too late in the day to qualify for Room in the Inn, said Deronda Metz, director of social services at the Center of Hope.
"If they show up at the door after 3 p.m., we need to find a place for them on the floor," Metz said. "The question is: When will even the floor space be too crowded?"
It's not just the homeless shelters that are feeling the impact of the cold. The frigid temperatures come at a time when more people are struggling to pay utility bills. Duke Energy officials say the number of electricity cut-offs from January to November of last year increased 6.7 percent over the same period in 2008.
Duke declined to say how many accounts were shut off, citing customer privacy. However, of the 131 people standing in line Monday at Crisis Assistance Ministry, 15 had no utilities and 54 others were losing their utilities that day.
The agency also kept three households from being evicted.
Crisis Assistance is helping 25 percent more people pay for rent and utilities than last year, said Carol Hardison, the agency's executive director.
"These families have no place else to turn. They are desperate," said Hardison. "We're the point of last resort before a family sleeps in the cold, or worse yet, becomes homeless. Warmth and shelter are two of the most basic needs of life."
The average amount required to prevent eviction and utility disconnection is $320 per household.
The recently re-launched Critical Need Response Fund will help in coming months, if the cold persists or worsens. The fund, which is managed by Foundation for the Carolinas, has already given out $450,000 since Dec. 18.
The money went in equal shares to Crisis Assistance Ministry, the Men's Shelter of Charlotte and Loaves & Fishes food bank.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Gets Another Federal Grant For Homeless
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Area Mental Health will get more than $2 million in Federal money to provide services and housing to homeless people, U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell announced this week.
The “shelter plus care” grant is designed to offer long-term support to homeless people with mental illness, addiction or AIDS.
Piedmont Behavioral Healthcare, which serves Cabarrus, Davidson, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties, also received an $84,744 grant.
Stimulus Money Will Aid Struggling Charlotte Renters</span>
An initiative to help people facing a housing crisis in outlying counties has received $1.4 million in Federal Stimulus money.
Charlotte-based Community Link will oversee the project, which focuses on both the homeless and struggling renters in Cabarrus, Davidson, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties. All but Union have unemployment rates higher than Mecklenburg, with Rowan the highest at 12.8 percent.
Floyd Davis, president of Community Link, says aid should start by mid-November. The money, awarded through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is expected to help at least 150 individuals and families annually for the next three years.
"We have many people today who find themselves unemployed, not because they weren't a good worker, but because the business they worked for closed or they were laid off," said Davis, who applied for the HUD grant through the state in September.
"This program is to help them maintain housing and support services until they can get back on their feet. ...We can pay for their entire housing costs for up to 18 months."
Community Link will divide the recipients into two categories: 45 of them each year will be homeless who need housing; and 105 will be tenants who can't keep up with rent and utilities. They can stay in the program for no more than 18 months. Those who qualify will be given a case manager and other support, Davis said. Community Link, which helped 7,000 struggling people find affordable housing last year, will add two staffers for the program.
To find candidates, Community Link is partnering with six agencies in the five counties, all of which meet needs ranging from emergency shelter to help with utilities and rent.
One of those partners, Rowan Helping Ministries, runs a shelter in Rowan County. It recently saw a good candidate for the new assistance program in a family of six.
"The parents lost their jobs, lost their home, and had no place else to go," said Penny Bowman, program director for the ministry. "They stayed in our shelter for six months, until the dad did get a job."
Stanly County, where unemployment is 11.9 percent, just got its first emergency housing shelter in September. It has eight beds and was started by Homes of Hope, a partner in the new housing effort.
"We have a lot of average people in this county who are about to be homeless and if we could just find a way to get them through this next year, they could make it back," said Executive Director Skeet Ayscue.
In Cabarrus, the new program could put a dent in the estimated 240 families a month that face a housing crisis, said Ed Hosack, executive director of Cooperative Christian Ministry in Concord, another of the groups participating.
"We have three foreclosures a day and over eight eviction notices served a day," said Hosack. "We do not have the shelter and transitional housing facilities to respond to that. We know this program can have a tremendous impact in keeping some families in their homes, and helping others get back into a place rather quickly."
Cabarrus' problems with unemployment go back years, he says, citing the closing of Pillowtex in 2003, which wiped out 4,000 jobs in Cabarrus and Rowan counties.
The HUD money comes from the same federal pool that helped launch Project Hope in Charlotte in August. That $2 million project is crafted as a long-term solution for homelessness, proposing to pull Mecklenburg families and individuals from shelters, put them in apartments and stabilize their lives over 18 months.
Davis sees Community Link's program as a regional extension of the goals championed by Project Hope.
"It makes much more sense in my mind to help people stay in housing, as opposed to letting them become homeless and suffer all the disruption to their lives in a time of crisis," said Davis.
"I'm happy that HUD is finally looking at prevention, and I think it will be more efficient and effective."
Charlotte Strategy Goes Beyond Housing Homeless
Project Hope – a groundbreaking program that could change the way Charlotte deals with homelessness – is expected to be unveiled tonight as part of a Charlotte City Council vote to back the project with nearly $2 million in Federal Stimulus money.
Crafted to be a long-term solution rather than a quick fix, the program calls for pulling families and individuals from local shelters, putting them in rental apartments, and stabilizing their lives over 18 months with education, job skills, counseling and support from social workers and teams of volunteers.
The start-up plan calls for 100 families to be helped over the next three years. However, organizers predict hundreds more could be recruited if plans for another $2 million in stimulus money from the state fall into place in the coming months. Steps are also being finalized for a campaign to raise further money from local donors.
“It's a very exciting time,” says Roxianna Johnson, head of the Homeless Services Network, a coalition of 37 nonprofit, government and faith-based programs devoted to ending homelessness in Mecklenburg County.
“These dollars have created an opportunity to try things that we've talked about for years, things that we know work, but we never had the funding to implement on this kind of scale.”
The council will vote to contract with Crisis Assistance Ministry and the Workforce Initiative for Supportive Housing (WISH). Those groups will manage Project Hope on behalf of the Homeless Services Network. A small portion of the stimulus money will also go toward short-term homeless prevention, including help with rent.
How the participants will be chosen is still being worked out. But the goal is reaching the most vulnerable of the homeless.
“Lives will be changed,” says Carol Hardison, director of Crisis Assistance Ministry. “They'll move from the fear of sleeping in a car or on a cot, to having an opportunity for financial stability.”
The ultimate goal, she says, is to keep participants from returning to homelessness once their time in the program ends.
That is the basic philosophy of WISH, which has helped 70 homeless families (including 130 children) work toward financial stability since being launched 18 months ago.
Sarah Covington, 28, is among them – and an example of what WISH hopes to accomplish in Project Hope. She lost her job last year as a certified nurse's assistant and spent the winter in a homeless shelter with her daughter. WISH found her a home, helped her find a job, and gave her a chance to enroll in college to become a registered nurse.
Better still, she says, the program showed her how to save for a down payment on a car, eliminating six hours a day riding the bus to work and school.
“If I keep working hard, everything is going to come through for me,” she says. “I was at a low point, worrying about where my child would lay her head at night. But I was truly blessed to get into this program.”
The Salvation Army's Center of Hope, a homeless shelter near uptown, will direct families and individuals to Project Hope. Center director Deronda Metz has already identified a few dozen families that she hopes will qualify. The center currently has 310 women and children, some of whom have been homeless for more than a year.
“We had a resident meeting on Wednesday and I grabbed the mic and I surprised them with the news on Project Hope, and they cheered and applauded,” said Metz. “One lady started crying. She said, ‘I didn't think anybody was listening.'”
Organizers say one of the most innovative parts of the project is the partnerships from all segments of the community. In addition to Crisis Assistance and WISH, Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services will assign three social workers to the project, more if the additional money comes through. The nonprofit Foundation for the Carolinas has worked behind the scenes to organize regular meetings of the partners.
Also key is an endorsement by the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association, which is encouraging apartment companies to participate on a case-by-case basis.
WISH Director Darren Ash believes a key to the program's success will be in matching homeless people with teams of volunteers.
“Social workers are there to lay out a path and hold people accountable, but what creates significant change is … when these families bond with people who have a different past,” Ash says. “They break away from other role models to a new set of role models.
“One of the biggest gifts Charlotte has is a sense of volunteerism, and this is a model that takes advantage of that.”
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Sources: WBTV, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, WCNC, A Child's Place, Charmeck.org, Charlotte Rescue Mission, Yahoo, Youtube, Google Maps
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