After a fight over a homelessness ordinance last year, city council asked staff to look into creating a new low or no-barrier shelter. Now, staff have come around with an update, on both that shelter and the cost of implementing a shared Wilmington-New Hanover County plan to address homelessness that the county backed away from last year.
For the shelter, the non-profit LINC was the top contender as a partner, though they may work with other agencies, such as Living Hope or The Healing Place, once a facility is up and running.
At a budget work session on Friday, May 29, Housing Director Rachel Schuler said building a shelter could cost $12 million, with another $625,000 in annual operating expenses. But that’s just an estimate.
"We have looked at different site locations, potential budget needs," she said.
The new shelter is just a part of the overall strategy. The homelessness plan would cost $26 million total, according to Schuler’s estimates. That includes funding for rapid rehousing, housing retention, new construction by outside agencies like Good Shepherd, Supportive Services, and rental help.
By comparison, last year’s budget included $1.1 million in investments toward addressing homelessness. Councilmembers seemed committed to continuing their funding for homelessness and housing alike, even as they were looking for places to trim the budget.
That’s a lot of money from taxpayers, so Mayor Saffo suggested looking towards the biggest funder in town: The New Hanover Community Endowment. Saffo noted City Manager Becky Hawke and Chief of Staff Dennis LaCaria have already had some conversations with The Endowment, in general.
"Can we get the Endowment back into that if we partner with the county? Because it seems — and Dennis and Becky, I think y'all have had more conversations with them with anybody — It's my understanding that if there is a partnership with the city, the county, the Endowment would come in and help with some of these endeavors, which they seem to already be doing anyway, but I don't know if that's in their budget for this year or not," he said.
Hawke responded that county participation would help with the application for Endowment funding, but it’s certainly not a guarantee.
This overarching unsheltered strategy isn’t an official part of this year’s budget talks, but Schuler agreed that asking the Endowment has to be part of the funding strategy. "I think what they would value is a comprehensive look at the system, the ecosystem to put forward a comprehensive plan of how all of these agencies are going to be a part of it, and I think that's part of what we're doing with some of this, and I think that's the, that's the natural next step is looking at that collaborative application to them.
Councilmembers seemed broadly supportive of the effort, and even said they weren’t willing to make any cuts to housing assistance and affordable housing gap financing since the county has backed away from funding. Both Councilwoman Salette Andrews and Mayor Saffo also mentioned a desire to support the Living Hope Day Center and its director, Tony Perez.
"So could we find maybe a space for Tony?" Saffo asked. "Let's just say, if he were to identify a space also where he needs 5000 square feet, which is not a lot of square footage, but you know, we could help on the rental aspect of that.”
Staff responded to say the planned low-barrier shelter could have a day shelter component, with Perez and his staff heading it up. The Day Center will lose its current site in July, however, and the low-barrier shelter is likely years away from completion. Staff at the meeting didn't address the more immediate need for a new location.
As part of the broad-ranging discussion on homelessness, LaCaria had another idea: to bring the Continuum of Care (CoC) under the umbrella of the city, taking control of that organization from the Council of Governments.
"When I was at Mecklenburg County, we took control of the COC from the city of Charlotte because it had languished and had not worked very well, and reconstituted the board, redid the bylaws, and saw significant positive change as a result of that," he said.
He suggested the other entities that are part of the CoC could either become their own separate CoC, or join the 'balance of state' CoC, which covers many rural areas of North Carolina. The existing CoC agreement ends in June of next year, so the city and the Council of Governments have plenty of time to discuss the options — if the CoC is interested in exploring a new arrangement, that is.
