Groups take on issues of homeless

Residents of Orange County gathered Thursday morning to try to tackle issues related to homelessness, in hopes of finding some resolution.

More than 100 people representing several organizations and interests attended the Orange County Roundtable Discussion on Homelessness at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 1050 Airport Road.

Sally Greene, a Chapel Hill Town Council member who along with Mayor Kevin Foy proposed that the town sponsor the event, said the three main goals of the roundtable were "to educate the community by dispelling myths and to put a face on homelessness; to develop a long-term plan to end homelessness in Orange County; and to encourage personal responsibility by inviting the community to get involved."

Many speakers expressed the need for all sectors and organizations in the county to work together to confront homelessness.

"If you want to go quickly, you walk alone. If you want to go far, you walk together," Ken Maness told the group, quoting an African saying about partnership.

Maness, who is with the city of Raleigh Planning Department, has been working in Raleigh for the last year to implement the 10-year Plan to End Homelessness initiative.

Greene said that Chapel Hill is aware of the initiative, sponsored by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and that federal funding is available locally if the homelessness plan is adopted on the specific federal terms.

"(This roundtable) puts us into a position to consider whether or not to move in that direction," she said.

Others shared their personal experiences working with the homeless at the Inter-Faith Council's men's shelter at 100 W. Rosemary St.

Stephen Elkins-Williams, the rector at the Chapel of the Cross, said that when his church served as an interim shelter this summer while the men's shelter was under renovation, volunteer parishioners learned the homeless are not the criminals many perceive them to be.

"The main benefit for us was not so much satisfaction in helping the needy ... but has been putting a human face on homelessness," he said.

Raney Norwood, the men's shelter manager, also tried to dispel some common misconceptions about the homeless.

"A lot of people don't understand the cases that we handle every night at the shelter," Norwood said. "At one time, these were working people - they just had a stroke of bad luck."

Pine Knolls resident Ted Parrish attended the meeting to represent his neighbors who oppose the idea of relocating the IFC men's shelter to a spot near Pine Knolls. The IFC has appraised a site on Merritt Mill Road as a potential shelter location.

He also was concerned that Carrboro officials were not able to attend the roundtable. The Carrboro Board of Aldermen declined its invitation because of scheduling concerns.

Parrish requested that future meetings be scheduled at times that are more convenient to all officials.

While no plans for action were offered at the event, the focus of much of the discussion was on developing a future plan to deal with the homeless based on data and research.

"As a culture, we have shown an overreliance on the nonprofit sector to fix this issue," said Martha Are, a homeless policy specialist in the Office of the Secretary at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

She said a problem many communities have is a lack of extensive data to track expenditures on the homeless.

Are said 80 percent of the homeless population is homeless for less than two months at a time. Another 10 percent stay homeless for up to six months.

But Greene and Are both said the main problem is chronic homelessness - the 10 percent to 15 percent of people who remain homeless for more than a year.

"This 10 percent of all homeless are consuming more than 50 percent of the available resources," Greene said.

Ty Dexter, a resident of the Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers program in Durham, was homeless about 15 months ago and was at the roundtable on behalf of the program. Dexter said that while homelessness will never end, society can strive to make improvements.

"We have the capacity, we have the wealth, and we have the means," he said. "No matter how much money you throw at it, the thing that will make the difference is the people."

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