(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . North Carolina Open Thread: NC Homeless [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-19 NC Policy Watch, Kelon Lyons, 2/17/2023 City draws fire for its treatment of unhoused population and arrest of journalists attempting to cover police sweep of city park It was Christmas night, so Veronica Coit hadn’t expected to stay at Aston Park for long. They had come to bring their colleague, Matilda Bliss, a plate from dinner: turkey, sweet potato- and green bean-casseroles, collard greens and a slice of pie. Coit, whose pronouns are they and them, figured they’d be back home with their family shortly, maybe ending the Christmas night of 2021 the same way as the one before: watching doll-making and rug-cleaning videos on YouTube. Coit’s plans changed once they saw how many police officers were there. Coit and Bliss are on staff at the Asheville Blade, described on its website as a “leftist local news co-op focusing on hard-hitting journalism, in-depth investigation and sharp views from our city.” The reporters had been closely covering Asheville’s response to homelessness, a serious issue in a town with a pricey housing market, a rising cost of living and a lack of affordable housing. Bliss had received a text that evening that police at Aston Park were preparing to clear an encampment of tents and personal items owned by unsheltered people and their allies. WLOS, Taylor Thompson, 2/14/2023 Many Buncombe County commissioners, Asheville City Council members and Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee members spent Monday in Raleigh touring homeless facilities. In January, the National Alliance to End Homelessness presented its findings to city and county leaders following a study of homelessness in the community. This trip to Raleigh was one of the recommendations from the alliance. Buncombe County District 2 Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara called it a positive trip, saying it was helpful to meet and learn from those in Wake and Orange counties who are working on homelessness and addiction response issues. One of the facilities Buncombe and Asheville leaders visited was the Healing Place. Beach-Ferrara said it was moving and powerful to see a center that offers a continuum of services to people with drug and alcohol addictions. “We had the chance to meet with those at a high-access shelter and go into detail about how that’s working on the ground, what they’re learning from that and what we can take back here as we move forward in our work,” Beach-Ferrara said. CITIES WITH LOW-BARRIER HOMELESS SHELTERS LIKE THE ONE PLANNED IN ASHEVILLE SAY THEY WORK A high-access shelter is what Beach-Ferrara said the Asheville area needs. A high-access shelter, also known as a low-barrier shelter, is where people can receive services with as few barriers as possible. Beach-Ferrara that kind of shelter starts the process of getting people permanent housing and access to behavioral health and addiction treatment if needed. NC Policy Watch, Bob Shofield, 2/14/2023 Homelessness. It takes many forms in modern North Carolina – some familiar, some less so. For several thousand families, it means double-bunking or “couch surfing” with friends or relatives for an extended period. For a tragic number, it means living in a vehicle or even camping out in tents, shanties, parking garages and downtown doorways, under highway overpasses, or on park benches. Some people are able to access shelters made available by churches and nonprofits. In Raleigh this winter, thanks to the city’s maddening lack of any coherent plan, a trio of modest-sized religious congregations have struggled mightily to shelter scores of homeless people through what’s known as a “white flag” system, whereby a limited number of cots are made available after a certain hour on the nights the temperature falls below 35 degrees. And then there’s another option of which most well-off Americans are probably only vaguely aware: lower-rung hotels and motels. For decades in our state and across the U.S., owners of these facilities – picture an aging and dogeared one- or two-story budget motel on a noisy highway – have found a profitable business model in which they rent housing of last resort to struggling families and individuals with no place else to go. North Carolina Housing Coalition, Ryan Fehrman, 1/25/2023 During this week’s Housing Call, Ryan Fehrman, Executive Director for the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, discussed the findings in the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) Part 1 and recommended how to get involved in efforts to end homelessness in North Carolina and advocate for policy change. “This [AHAR: Part 1] is an aggregation of the Point-in-Time (PIT) counts that communities do across the entire country,” Fehrman explained. The PIT count typically takes place during the last 10 days in January. Later this year, the second part of the report will be released that uses HMIS data to provide a more generalized estimate of the number of people in shelters over the course of the full year. The Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) began releasing the AHAR in 2007 to provide a snapshot of homelessness and shelter inventory across the United States. Trends that emerge from the data inform policies, programmatic decisions, and funding for the homelessness system. Fehrman walked us through some of the main findings and reflected on the trends shown throughout the 2022 AHAR: Part 1 both at a national and state level. Here are a few of those highlights for North Carolina: As part of a larger national trend, the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness is increasing in NC. Between 2020 and 2022 , the number of North Carolinians experiencing unsheltered homelessness rose from 2,558 to 3,625. The number of NC families with dependent children experiencing homelessness (and in particular, unsheltered homelessness) is increasing. AHAR: Part 1 data from 2020 and 2022 indicates that the number of families with dependent children experiencing homelessness rose from 809 to 855. In Raleigh/Wake County alone, the number of families with dependent children experiencing unsheltered homelessness rose from 4 to 161. The table below shows the number of children experiencing homelessness in North Carolina between 2020 to 2022. North Carolina Housing Coalition Join us on May 2nd and 3rd for the 2023 Bringing It Home: Ending Homelessness in NC virtual conference, featuring Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and NCDHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley. This year’s conference will also include a panel discussion with the NC Balance of State CoC Lived Expertise Advisory Council, a virtual speed networking session, a mindfulness session, and a variety of interactive workshops. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more details! Are you interested in participating in a leadership-focused, in-person networking event for Bringing It Home attendees on May 1 at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh? Please let us know through this brief poll so that we can plan accordingly! Thanks for reading and contributing, I hope your week is a safe one. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/19/2153828/-North-Carolina-Open-Thread-NC-Homeless Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/