By Charlie Tyson
Staff Writer
For many, the approach of winter holidays invokes images of warm fireplaces, brightly colored wrapping paper and steaming mugs of hot cocoa savored with friends and family.
The hundreds of homeless in Chapel Hill face a completely different holiday season. For Chapel Hill’s homeless population, mid-December brings cold, wet streets and harsh weather.
This December, the town’s homeless and their advocates are battling more than just climate as the relocation of the men’s shelter for the homeless from Rosemary Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard hangs in doubt.
The Inter-Faith Council (IFC), a local service organization started in 1963, runs the only homeless shelter in Orange County: one for men, another for women and children.
The men’s shelter is next to the IFC’s community kitchen at the corner of Rosemary and Columbia streets in a building the Town of Chapel Hill offered as a temporary site in 1985.
While the shelter has started to outgrow the venue, the town, also short on space, wants the building back.
Chapel Hill Town Council member Ed Harrison noted additional motivations for the shelter’s move.
“Downtown business operators and property owners (seldom the same people) have been asking the IFC to move both these uses out of downtown for some 15 years,†Harrison said in an email. “The IFC itself has said for years that the OMB (Old Municipal Building) is a poor location for the functions they wanted to be carrying out in a homeless shelter, especially rehabilitation.â€
Addressing concerns
The proposed spot for a new men’s shelter is a 1.6-acre site on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Homestead Road owned by the university. UNC has offered to lease the land for the shelter for 99 years at $1 per year.
The proposal has been looked at favorably by town officials but has drawn fire from nearby neighbors. Preliminary hearings on the proposal have seen dozens of people from the neighborhoods expressing concern about crime and loitering, especially concerning Homestead Park, which is near the proposed site.
IFC associate director John Dorward said the location was excellent, noting the proximity of bus lines and the Southern Human Services Center nearby.
“It isn’t very close to neighborhoods, as far as Chapel Hill is concerned,†he said in response to claims that the shelter was too close to residential areas. “There are a lot of the perceptions that the men are dangerous and going to bring crime and drugs into the neighborhood. We think that this is not true. Our program has existed for quite a while, and we believe that we can do this safely in the new site.â€
Dorward noted that the current downtown location was actually closer to residential areas than the proposed site.
“We seem to get along fairly well with most of our neighbors,†he said of residents living near the downtown shelter.
Dorward emphasized that the IFC was working to address the concerns of those living near the Homestead Road location.
Dorward said that it would be 18 to 24 months before the town council would make a final decision about relocating the shelter.
The town has yet to indicate a position on the issue. According to Harrison, a timetable for moving seems unrealistic due to current objections.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce vice president Adam Klein said the move could have a positive effect on the downtown’s economic climate.
“I think it would be a positive impact on downtown and, equally important, a positive for the homeless members of our community,†he said.
Reports of homelessness adversely affecting downtown business have dogged the Rosemary Street shelter.
Klein emphasized that negative economic consequences stemmed more from panhandling than from homelessness, and that there was no direct correlation between the two.
“Those who are homeless and those who panhandle are not always the same people,†he said. “I think there is a default assumption that if you’re panhandling, then you’re homeless; but that’s often not the case. Our downtown business members and their customers are most affected by aggressive panhandlers who are insistent in asking for money and sometimes even harass people.â€
‘A crucial difference’
In uncertain economic times, Dorward said, homelessness can be more imminent than many realize.
“A lot of people are about two paychecks away from being homeless,†he said. “If you’ve got a couple of paychecks that don’t come in, suddenly things start to snowball. You can’t make the mortgage, you can’t make the car payments, you lose the car, and then suddenly you can’t go to work anymore.â€
Dorward distinguished between two kinds of homelessness: chronic homelessness and temporary homelessness. Chronically homeless people find themselves without a home on and off throughout their lives, while temporarily homeless people are typically people who are facing difficult circumstances.
Dorward said that, especially for the latter type of homeless, organizations such as IFC make a crucial difference.
“Things happen to folks from time to time, and they find themselves suddenly on a path where they’re homeless,†he said. “They get themselves together with the help of a place like an IFC, and then they go right back into society.â€
Dorward hopes for a new men’s shelter and a relocated community kitchen within five years.
However, he acknowledges that homelessness is an issue that will not be solved anytime soon.
“It would be great if we worked ourselves out of a job, but I don’t see that necessarily happening,†he said.