NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A more structured approach to New Hanover County and Wilmington’s joint homelessness response was presented to county commissioners Thursday after both governing bodies rejected a task force proposal last month.
READ MORE: Housing coalition speaker myth busts homelessness causes, warns of worsening problem in Wilmington
Jennifer Rigby, the county’s chief strategy officer, and Rachel LaCoe, the City of Wilmington’s director of housing and neighborhood services, presented a five-month plan to further develop a joint strategy to address homelessness.
It includes the collection of information from local providers, plus real experiences from those living on the streets. Staff are recommending an “informal working group” of providers, community partners and city/county staff that will put together streamlined best practices and needs.
Staff’s original suggestion was a 29-person task force to develop regional best practices alongside a hired consultant. Council and commissioners shot down the idea down due to a perceived lack of clear goals and needs.
Staff will collect basic mission and operation information from the area organizations and also ask them questions about their biggest challenges and opportunities.
Providers include: Coastal Horizons, Good Shepherd, Healing Place, Vigilant Hope, Eden Village, Domestic Violence Shelter, Living Hope Day Center, Sokoto House, Continuum of Care, Anchor UMC, Grace UMC, Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity, WDI, New Beginning Christian Church, Warming Shelter, Family Promise, Salvation Army, LINC, Harrelson Center, and the Wilmington Housing Authority.
The data collection will be followed by another joint meeting between the city council and commissioners around the end of April. They will view gathered information and have the opportunity to ask providers questions directly.
The informal working group has not yet been put together, but will be based on the information given by each provider.
Staff would then gather feedback from people experiencing homelessness as they narrow in on recommended actions, along with success measures. Staff recommend “small, tailored groups” that would meet with them, though the participant’s identity would be kept anonymous.
“That [voice of the consumer component] was one of the things that was very pivotal in establishing our mental health and substance use strategy,” Rigby said.
The goal is to present a summary of findings and opportunities for government action by August.
On Thursday, commissioners were on board with the new plan of action, but city council will also need to approve when LaCoe and Rigby present to them on Monday.
“I think we’ve made a decision, rather than pushing the responsibility to other people, for us to be in the room along with the service providers and to have real specific and hard conversations on what folks are doing well, what folks need improvement on, and how we can kind of come together as a community and further our initiatives to help address homelessness,” city council member Luke Waddell said at the joint meeting.
Some leaders expressed an approach that avoids continuing to study the problem without coordinated action.
“What I often find is that these folks spend tremendous amounts of time meeting and making recommendations to the city and the county, only for us to rebuff their recommendations,” Barfield said. “And, so, I find that we waste people’s time and their talent by not taking into consideration the things that they bring to bear. I believe we already know what the problem is and what the challenges are.
On Thursday, Barfield said the new proposal still sounds like a task force, though he liked the shorter time frame for a plan development.
“I think this will be an opportunity for both the city and the county staff in particular to get educated on what’s out there,” Barfield said. “I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for our teams to really know who’s doing what and how we can plug the holes.”
The plan will focus on assistance for the unsheltered population and chronically homeless instead of the entire continuum of care, which includes populations in short-term housing, on the verge of becoming homeless, who were formerly homeless or struggling to afford housing.
Port City Daily asked the county why staff decided to narrow in the specified populations.
“The focus of the chronically homeless and unsheltered is a first step to addressing root causes of homelessness,” NHC spokesperson Alex Riley wrote in an email. This population is considered the most vulnerable on the spectrum of unhoused people because their primary nighttime residence is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation (such as a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, or camping ground). Outcomes of this plan will be to identify gaps and barriers so that people can continue through the housing spectrum and eventually achieve safe, permanent housing.”
The path to this plan development has been embroiled in debates over the best philosophy for curbing homelessness in the county. Some leaders believe the onus should be on permanent supportive housing and strategies to keep people in homes, which often overlaps with Housing First practices. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which distributes federal grants and housing vouchers, requires Housing First approaches for its funded projects.
The other viewpoint on addressing homelessness is a treatment-based approach, which often requires individuals to manage any substance abuse or mental health struggles before being connected with permanent housing. This approach often prioritizes short-term housing, such as shelters.
More details on which approach the county’s plan will prioritize will emerge in the coming months.
[Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article misidentified Jennifer Rigby. PCD regrets the error.]
Tips or comments? Email info@localdailymedia.com.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
