
{"id":11021,"date":"2010-06-16T13:12:15","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T21:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=11021"},"modified":"2010-06-16T13:12:15","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T21:12:15","slug":"more-than-shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/06\/16\/more-than-shelter\/","title":{"rendered":"More than Shelter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sharon Coulter-James<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Inter-Faith Council for Social Service (IFC) is proposing to build a transitional housing facility on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Chapel Hill that will help men who are experiencing homelessness to change the course of their lives. The Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness supports these plans and believes that the facility will make a significant contribution in helping to prevent and end homelessness in our community. <\/p>\n<p>IFC has provided many valuable services and programs to Orange County citizens for decades, including the Community House emergency shelter that has operated in the old municipal building in Chapel Hill since 1985.  IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s need to open a new transitional housing facility is twofold:  first, the Town of Chapel Hill wants to use the Old Municipal Building to satisfy other public needs; and secondly, the IFC program has simply outgrown the space.  Walking through the building on any given day confirms that the residents and staff are living and working in cramped quarters.  There is no outdoor space such as a yard or garden, and the indoor space is much too small to accommodate the housing, kitchen, clinic, office and other spaces for services that are required.<\/p>\n<p>IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new facility will be a 52-bed transitional housing program for homeless men\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsimilar to IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s HomeStart program for women and children\u00e2\u20ac\u201dproviding long-term housing and a continuum of services to residents.  The goal of the new facility is to promote the independence and self-reliance of its residents by providing them with a safe and stable living environment as well as a broad range of services to help them obtain employment and permanent housing.<\/p>\n<p>The experience of IFC and similar organizations teaches that emergency shelters get people off of the streets, but transitional housing transforms lives.  Each resident of the new facility will develop a set of individualized goals and obtain the services they need to achieve them.  Residents who are able to work will receive assistance with education, job training and job searches and those who are disabled will be referred to appropriate service providers.  Social workers will help the men apply for affordable or subsidized housing.  Residents will clean and maintain the building, work in the community gardens and help enforce house policies.  Senior residents will help mentor new arrivals.  Trained staff and numerous credentialed volunteers will provide health care, counseling, case management and support to the residents.  It is access to these vital social services within a transitional housing program that will transform these men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives and reduce homelessness within our community.  Without them, homeless men and women have little opportunity to start their lives anew.<\/p>\n<p>An example of a successful program similar to the one proposed by the IFC is located in Charlotte.  In 2002, plans for McCreesh Place\u00e2\u20ac\u201dan apartment complex for disabled men living in the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shelters\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwere unveiled amidst strong neighborhood opposition.  Eight years later, many of those neighbors are pleased to support an expansion of McCreesh Place and are, in fact, participating in its groundbreaking ceremony.  They have found that the formerly homeless men are good neighbors who volunteer for trash pickups at nearby parks and pass out community association newsletters, and the facility is an asset to the neighborhood that hosts community association meetings and is home for the Neighborhood Watch.<\/p>\n<p>The Partnership to End Homelessness believes that IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new transitional housing facility will be a good neighbor an asset to the community, and will help men overcome their personal challenges for finding jobs and permanent housing.  We consider the IFC to be an essential partner in our work to prevent and end homelessness in Orange County and look forward to strengthening our collaboration with them to achieve these goals.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sharon Coulter-James is chair of the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service (IFC) is proposing to build a transitional housing facility on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Chapel Hill that will help men who are experiencing homelessness to change the course of their lives. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11022,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11021\/revisions\/11022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}