NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The City of Wilmington and New Hanover County have collectively spent an average of $1 million annually to address homelessness in the last decade.
The local government entities annually funnel money into the Wilmington area toward direct and indirect services for the unhoused population, including nonprofit operations, social services, street outreach teams, housing initiatives and more.
READ PART 1: The cost of homelessness: $1M for tracking data, assisting nonprofits in Cape Fear
ALSO PART 2: The cost of homelessness: 10%, the chronically homeless, use 90% of resources
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a person experiencing chronic homelessness costs the taxpayer an average of $35,000 a year. This number was calculated in a 2016 study, so with rising inflation and cost-of-living expenses increasing in recent years, the number is likely to be higher in 2023.
Port City Daily reached out to the county and city to localize taxpayer impact. Assistant county manager Jessica Loeper said she was not aware of a per-person cost being analyzed on a county level.
Local government officials have invested at least $9 million into the greater over 10 years to help service providers and nonprofits, invest in programs that address substance use and mental health disorders, and provide outreach to connect homeless people to resources.
However, it doesn’t account for millions more spent on affordable housing, staff time and labor, the opioid crisis, and donations of properties and infrastructure (part five of the series will further address housing costs). As well, some financing remains difficult to track, such as social services provided to address basic needs — healthy food, transportation to health care, resources for veterans and employment support.
In the past 10 years, the city and county population has grown by 16% and the total homeless population has decreased by 26%. Though, the chronically homeless population has doubled from 44 in 2012 to 92 in 2022.
The Cape Fear Continuum of Care tracks the population annually, as addressed in part one of “The Cost of Homelessness.” It receives about $1 million for both its U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-compliant system and to be a passthrough for grants given to participating members in the region — roughly 50 nonprofits and organizations.
As addressed in part two of the series, the chronically homeless, 10%, uses most of the public resources, 90%, provided to the overall unhoused population by the sheriff’s department and the hospital. Both become places of respite for some people who live on the streets, especially during extreme weather.
It’s not uncommon for those experiencing housing crises to visit the ER without a medical need or even try to get arrested to spend a night in jail — when there, the homeless population is considered “housed” according to HUD. But these are not ideal uses of public resources, and according to experts in the field, can lead to more trauma for an already stressful living situation.
To help people in need find adequate resources — whether it’s shelter, food, employment or housing — local government entities step in. This part of the “The Cost of Homelessness” addresses investments the city and county made to assist.
Joint effort
To engage with individuals living on the streets and connect them to programs, the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County established a collaborative initiative late last year.
Getting Home is a $2.4-million effort and pairs county social workers with Wilmington Police Department officers. They engage with the unhoused population throughout the county and connect those in need to services, with the end-goal leading to housing opportunities.
Since December, the Getting Home team has connected 61 individuals to shelter, five to permanent supportive housing, 17 to substance abuse treatment, and 11 to employment resources. Staff has also provided tangible and intangible services to more than 300 people.
The city contributed $1.3 million from American Rescue Plan Act money and the county spent $1.18 million in ARPA funds and $76,500 from its general fund.
The county’s portion also covers clean-up efforts, such as power-washing the downtown library and Second Street parking deck, where unsheltered individuals often gathered. It cost roughly $2,400 per week; however, since a new ordinance went into place — which prohibits people from congregating and camping out on county-owned property overnight — fewer individuals are hanging out in those areas.
“Our team has scaled site checks back to every other day during the week with daily checks on the weekends,” county chief facilities officer Sarah Warmuth said.
According to Warmuth, there haven’t been as many left-behind items to remove from the sites in the last few weeks. A vendor is still hired to pressure wash the parking deck monthly, in addition to the monthly cleaning completed by parking deck management.
New Hanover has invested an additional $250,000 to staff a social worker at the downtown library since 2019. This has traditionally been a popular area for homeless people, especially since the city closed the Riverwalk visitor center for renovations in 2020.
Many living without adequate or permanent shelter also suffer from substance abuse disorder, and the city and county joint opioid settlement committee is approving funds to assist. Over the next few years, the committee will determine how to allocate more than $18 million toward substance use initiatives; one portion is to continue funding the Getting Home initiative beyond December 2024.
The group recently mapped out how to spend the first $8 million: the replacement of Narcan, an FDA-approved opioid overdose reversal; providing medication-assisted treatment at the detention center; revival of the D.A.R.E. program; employment-related services for people in treatment and recovery; and short-term housing solutions.
An additional $15-plus million in opioid settlement funds from local pharmacies for their role in the opioid crisis — on top of the $18 million settlement allocation from major corporations — will be headed to New Hanover County in the coming years.
City of Wilmington
Since 2012 the City of Wilmington has directly invested around $4.3 million toward homeless initiatives, the bulk budgeted for nonprofits and organizations that work directly with the population.
To provide shelter, food and connection to housing and employment resources, the city gave $3.7 million to:
- Coastal Horizons Youth Shelter: $256,256 from its general fund
- Domestic Violence Shelter and Services, Inc.: $73,7001 from general fund and $267,770 in federal funds
- First Fruit Ministries: $39,959 from general fund and $220,641 in federal funds
- Good Shepherd Ministries: $57,093 from general fund, $1.6 million in federal funds and $420,000 in Community Development Block Grant money
- Leading Into New Communities (LINC): $580,936 from general fund, $124,898 in federal money and $43,604 in Community Development Block Grant money
Between 2012 and 2017, the city appropriated $50,000 annually to United Way’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. The Council of Governments then became the recipient of city funds, when it took over in 2015 as the lead agency for the Cape Fear Continuum of Care. The city allocates $50,000 to COG annually to support its efforts; it increased funding to $65,000 in fiscal year 2022.
The city has also donated land, contributed funds and launched programs. Some of the money it issues is local, some from the state and, most recently, a large pot has come in from the feds.
In total, it invested at least another $4.3 million toward housing initiatives, including permanent supportive housing, land donations, affordable units and loans, which Port City Daily will break down further in the final part of the series.
Unmeasurable costs, according to city spokesperson Dylan Lee, include staff time from the Wilmington Police Department, parks maintenance, code enforcement, trash and recycling, and community development and housing.
While not paid out directly from city funds, another local organization with boots on the ground to combat homelessness is Wilmington Downtown Inc. The organization receives funding through contracts with the city — for its municipal services district program and economic development — and property taxes paid by those operating businesses in the MSD.
The city has a five-year contract with the MSD to provide cleaning, aesthetic, economic development and safety service within a 70-block downtown area. In fiscal year 2022-2023, the MSD brought in $781,306 to be used specifically for services in the district.
WDI’s focus is to improve the safety, cleanliness, and vitality of downtown Wilmington. Starting in 2021, it began s street outreach program, through its contract with Block by Block, a national consulting firm recognized for its program on hospitality, facility safety and maintenance.
That December WDI hired social worker Jack Morris, who has made 5,200 interactions with the unhoused population downtown since. Morris, a full-time employee first hired for $43,680, aims to build trust with homeless people and act as a liaison between businesses, residents, visitors and law enforcement.
His main goal is to get to know individuals and connect them with needed services. Morris has helped the homeless population make 1,500 connections to social services in the last 15 months, according to WDI vice president Christina Haley.
In mid-fiscal year 2023, WDI expanded its tracking data, and reported 78 instances of helping people reach housing, assisting 45 individuals find shelter and linking 34 people to a detox program.
To fund these efforts, WDI receives municipal services district property taxes, valued at 6.47 cents per $100 valuation. WDI’s total budget for fiscal year 2023 is $562,692 with 14%, or $78,776, allocated to street outreach
The MSD Advisory Committee approved a pay raise for Morris in November, bumping his salary to $55,000 to be competitive with the county’s social workers on the Getting Home team.
New Hanover County
While WDI and its street outreach program is mostly funded by the city, the county contributes as well. In its fiscal year 2022-2023 budget, New Hanover County allocated $98,280 to WDI. The county also paid $3,000 to WDI to train the Getting Home team.
Like the city, the bulk of county funding — $4.35 million in 10 years — goes toward initiatives nonprofits and organizations oversee.
New Hanover invested $2.7 million since 2013 to organizations for sheltering, providing food and medical care for the homeless.
- Good Shepherd Ministries: $398,350
- Council of Governments Continuum of Care: $304,300
- Coastal Horizons: $339,000
- First Fruit Ministries: $73,500
- Domestic Violence Shelter and Services Inc.: $339,300
- Family Promise of Lower Cape Fear: $190,600
- United Way: $25,000
- Salvation Army: $1 million
Not included in the overall $4-plus million are additional dollars put toward other needs, such as social services.
In fiscal year 2022-2023, New Hanover allocated $42 million of its budget to social services, $2 million more than the prior year. Fifteen percent of the county’s total budget is dedicated to human services — but the county doesn’t categorize funds according to someone’s housing status. This includes programs like SNAP, WIC, crisis intervention, and food and nutrition services.
There are also projects that may indirectly assist the homeless population. For example, New Hanover County commissioners signed off on purchasing property at 1605 Robin Hood Road for $1.5 million to build a 36-bed facility for medical detox and crisis stabilization. It’s open to everyone, but can provide treatment to homeless individuals suffering from substance abuse disorder.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, more than 10% of people who seek substance abuse or mental health treatment in public health systems are homeless.
Future renovations of The Harbor will cost the county up to $3.7 million. The money was allocated from the $50 million Mental and Behavioral Health Fund derived from the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant.
New Hanover also spent $25 million for the construction of The Healing Place, a 200-bed detox facility and emergency shelter. The shelter has remained at least 50% full since opening in February, taking some heat off the local emergency shelters that remain full.
It’s free for anyone — not just those experiencing homelessness — to access services. New Hanover County pays $45 per day for clients it sends to The Healing Place.
Affordable housing has become a hot topic among county leaders, with commissioners voting in February 2022 to spend $15 million over the next five years toward affordable housing projects. Three million dollars was spent this fiscal year to build 152 units targeted at people who make less than the median income.
The county also funded $250,000 to extend water and sewer to the nonprofit Eden Village, a tiny home community sheltering the chronically homeless. The money came from American Rescue Plan Act funds.
A breakdown of how nonprofits use funds, including money dedicated by the city and county, will be covered in the next part of “The Cost of Homelessness.”
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