Guest columnist
I recently began working as a "Community Education Specialist" with the 10-Year Results Plan to End Homelessness in Durham. I am very happy to be back in the workforce!
Much of my work will be educating the community about the 10-Year Plan. I want to help people come to know homeless people as people, filled with hopes and dreams, skills and gifts. My work is to help you, the reader, know and do what you can to help reduce and ultimately end long term homelessness.
My first weeks on the job have been filled with learning "good news and bad news."
The "good news" is that we are helping homeless people in new, significant ways. Here are several important accomplishments of the first two years of the 10-Year Plan:
* Durham has created 52 more units of permanent supportive housing specifically for homeless people with disabilities.
* Better discharge planning and coordination of services has reduced the number of people being released into homelessness from Central Regional Hospital dramatically.
* Community organizations and hundreds of volunteers hosted two successful Project Homeless Connect events, serving the needs of over 200 people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness at the annual event.
The "bad news" is that the economic crisis threatens to overwhelm Durham's capacity to care for those most in need among us:
* The Durham Crisis Response Center reports that they sheltered 112 victims of domestic violence in the first six months of 2009, a 72 percent increase over 2008.
* Food & Nutrition Services -- formerly Food Stamps -- participation in Durham County reached 29,727 people in July, an all time high. Over 11 percent of the county's people are receiving public nutrition assistance.
* Urban Ministries of Durham, operating one of the city's largest homeless shelters, reports that, since January 2009, they have been providing emergency housing to more than 130 people every night and serving an average of 140 new homeless people every month, double the number of new homeless people served in 2008.
* UMD's Community Kitchen, the only program providing three meals daily at no charge to anyone who is hungry, served an average of 700 meals daily in June, a 40 percent increase over 2008.
* State budget cuts likely will mean that significant numbers of people in need of immediate mental health and/or substance abuse treatment in Durham County will be put on waiting lists for services.
What can be done? Clearly, we cannot and must not lose hope. Hope sustains and encourages us in difficult times.
I am hopeful that we will use this crisis to deepen the bonds of community. We can extend our circle of caring beyond our family, friends and neighborhood. We can share the financial pain. We can sacrifice together to ensure that the weakest and most vulnerable among us are cared for.
I am encouraged that federal Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing (HPRP) monies will soon provide rent assistance to homeless people and those at risk of homelessness. However, I already foresee that the demand for these dollars will outstrip the supply.
I am encouraged that many good and wonderful people are working to coordinate services and deliver the assistance that people need with ever greater efficiency and effectiveness, using scarce public and private dollars for maximum benefit.
Until the crisis ends, I hope landlords would work compassionately with unemployed tenants to avoid further evictions into homelessness; limited HPRP funds soon will help some people. Can alternate rent payment schedules also be developed for tenants who are unemployed in the same way that banks are restructuring mortgages?
I encourage employers to do all they can to avoid further layoffs. I have been inspired by news stories of the New England school district that avoided layoffs by employees and management agreeing to share pay cuts. Perhaps such an inspirational story will happen in Durham.
Another school year reminds us that the holidays, the traditional season of giving, are rapidly approaching. But clearly, homelessness and hunger have not taken a holiday -- they really never do. Food drives for our hungry brothers and sisters are needed now. Direct service programs need funding support today!
The third annual Project Homeless Connect event is scheduled for October 8 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and needs volunteers. Will you or your company, or both, assist this outreach effort?
To learn more about Durham's 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, please visit www.durhamtenyearplan.com. To volunteer to help implement the plan or to help with Project Homeless Connect, call me or our resource specialist, Lanea Foster, at 866-929-7009.
Lloyd Schmeidler lives in Durham.
