City, Partners Ending Homelessness Join Efforts on Veteran’s Initiative

GREENSBORO – The City of Greensboro is ramping up its fight to end veteran homelessness with the Homes for Heroes campaign, announced today as part of a joint media briefing with representatives from Partners Ending Homelessness. The initiative is part of the Mayor’s Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness and Zero:2016, programs designed to end veteran homelessness, as it is known today, in participating communities by the end of 2015.

Through the Homes for Heroes campaign, the City is encouraging property owners and landlords to sign up to offer housing to currently homeless veterans. Each homeless veteran will receive case management and support through organizations involved in the effort to end Vet homelessness, such as the VA and Salvation Army. It is estimated that as many as 86 Guilford County veterans will need housing over the remainder of 2015.

“In Greensboro alone, we have 47 veterans who are currently homeless (as of January 2015),” says Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan. “As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s independence in a few weeks, it’s the perfect time to honor the men and women who have helped us maintain our freedom. Some of those folks have fallen on hard times and we owe it to them to lift them back up and, through this program, help them find housing and get back on their feet.”

Darryl Kosciak, executive director of Partners Ending Homelessness, says that there is work to be done to eradicate veteran homelessness, but that it is an attainable goal through community partnerships and determination. “As a community, we want to work toward ensuring that every veteran is placed in permanent housing,” says Kosciak. “We want to join cities like New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Phoenix that have reached ‘functional zero’ by ensuring that there is a quick resolution in place if a veteran becomes homeless.”

In January of 2015, Greensboro joined the City of Winston-Salem in signing on to the Mayors Challenge. Concurrently, Guilford County was accepted into the national Zero:2016 campaign (http://cmtysolutions.org/zero2016). Since January, 78 veterans have been placed into housing, 46 through the Salvation Army Greensboro in partnership with the Federal Supportive Services for Veterans and Families (SSVF) grant, five through the VA, and 27 via other avenues to housing.

Property owners and landlords can sign up at http://www.partnersendinghomelessness.org/action to receive further information and join this effort by listing their properties for homeless veterans and their families. Representatives from Partners Ending Homelessness will contact everyone who signs up.

- a press release

Open Letter from Liz Seymour

Dear Friends,

This has not been an easy couple of days for those who care about the Interactive Resource Center and the people it serves. Starting on Sunday, June 1 Susan Ladd of the Greensboro News & Record published a three-part series on the IRC that painted a picture of a place where verbal abuse and sexual harassment are common and unchecked, where people are humiliated, ignored and mistreated, and where the leadership is irresponsible and out of touch.

Yesterday at the morning meeting, a daily gathering of the IRC clients, volunteers and staff, I asked people if they had seen what had been written in the paper. There were about four dozen clients in the day room at the time, drinking iced tea, conversing, waiting to do their laundry or to see a nurse. One man shook his head. "She talked to the wrong people," he said. "I wish she had talked to me."

A woman on the other side of the room put her hand up. "What she said, it's not the way it is at all," she said. "The IRC helped me get back on my feet a couple of years ago and when things went wrong again I knew just where to come. The IRC is my soft landing." The room broke into applause. Another man stood up to speak. "This isn't just an attack on the IRC," he said. "This feels like an attack on all of us."

The series made some very specific allegations about the IRC that deserve to be addressed directly.

• IRC staff members do not verbally abuse or curse guests. Staff members themselves are sometimes subject to verbal abuse and cursing from clients, but they respond with restraint, firmness and professionalism.

• The IRC Board and I take all allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior very seriously, as should any public place, but especially a place that serves a vulnerable and traumatized population. In only one case has an investigation identified actual wrong-doing. That investigation resulted in a staff member being discharged immediately (this was about a year and a half ago).

• The IRC has protocols in place for distributing bus passes, financial assistance, clothing etc. (a person must, for instance, have a verifiable job interview or other verifiable need before we will issue a bus pass) which means that sometimes people don't get what they want, but that doesn't mean that staff members "play favorites" about who gets services and resources.

• The IRC staff does not maintain "inappropriate relationships" with clients. Susan Ladd chose to take the word of one of her sources over the word of IRC staff members. She was misinformed.

• Much of the criticism in the series centered around Will Howard, who serves as both Employment Specialist and Assistant Executive Director. As gatekeeper to more resources than anyone else on staff-bus passes, work boots, interview clothing, etc., and as the one most responsible for the IRC's daily logistics-he is the staff member who has to say "no" the most often and who has to enforce IRC policy most rigorously. It should not be overlooked that in the first four months of 2014 Will Howard and his volunteers helped 130 people find work, including 39 permanent full-time jobs.

• I do not ignore complaints about problems.   I maintain an open-door policy and am always willing to stop and talk to anyone who has a concern.  We have a grievance policy posted throughout the building and I recently reviewed it with our clients at a morning meeting.  Given the number of people we see daily-200 or more-- the complaints are very few and most are minor things that can be resolved immediately.  What didn't make it into Susan's article is the number of people who stop me in the halls of the IRC and out in the community to thank me for what the IRC has done for them.

During a lengthy interview with me Susan maintained that many issues at the IRC go unreported because people are afraid of retaliation and especially of being banned for speaking out. I explained to her that we don't ban people for speaking out (and, in fact, two of the people Susan quoted at length in her articles were at the IRC yesterday getting services). No single staff member can ban a client: that is a decision made by the entire staff and only after every other option has been exhausted. The criteria we use to make that decision are the safety of other clients; the impact someone's behavior has on our ability to serve other clients; and the person's willingness to work towards change. In over five years of operation and nearly 9,000 individuals served only 62 people have been banned, which speaks both to the staff's reluctance to give up on anyone and the respect IRC clients show to the organization and to each other.

I am proud of what the Greensboro community-homeless and housed-has created together at the IRC and frankly, as I finish my final month with the IRC, I am proud of the work I have done here. I am equally excited to see where incoming Executive Director Michelle Kennedy and our excellent staff and Board will be able to take what is still a very young organization.

As one man who came into my office yesterday said: "They say don't bite the hand that feeds you. Well, the IRC is the kind of place where you bite the hand and it feeds you anyway." As long as the need is still there the IRC will still be there, offering a helping hand, meeting people where they are and doing whatever we can to help some of the most vulnerable members of our community reach their goals.

Liz Seymour
Executive Director

via email

Liz Seymour to leave the Interactive Resource Center this summer

Liz Seymour, a founder and the current director of Greensboro's Interactive Resource Center, is leaving the organization this summer, according to a press release the IRC sent out this morning. Here is the full press release:

Liz Seymour, Executive Director of the Interactive Resource Center, has announced that she will be leaving the Interactive Resource Center at the end of June.  Seymour, who was part of the group that founded the day center for people experiencing homelessness, has been Executive Director of the IRC since June 2009.

"I am extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish in five years," says Seymour.  "There are many many people in Greensboro whose lives are better because of this extraordinary community effort."

Since it opened in January 2009 the IRC has served over 8,000 people.  The Center's services include showers, laundry, case management, employment assistance, residential counseling, medical care and more.  Among the major partners of the IRC are the Congregational Nurse Program, the Congregational Social Work Educational Initiative, Triad Adult & Pediatric Medicine, GTCC and the Veterans' Administration.  The IRC, which began in rented space on East Bessemer Avenue, now occupies a 22,000 square foot building in downtown Greensboro donated by the Richard Strasser family to the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro for the express purpose of housing a day center.

"The IRC is now positioned to be a strong and contributing partner with others in the community as we continue our effort to end homelessness in Guilford County," says Bob Newton, IRC Board Chair. 

"Greensboro owes Liz Seymour a big vote of recognition and thanks for her vision, her steadfast commitment to an ideal, and her tireless effort on behalf of all those experiencing homelessness."

A call for applications will be posted on the IRC website in early February. 

Festival of Shelters highlights experience of homelessness

The Rev. Russ Post-May leads a prayer service across from the Central Library on Wednesday evening.

Throughout this week a revolving group of dozen or more people is maintaining an encampment across the street from the Central Library in downtown Winston-Salem.

The tents, cardboard boxes, hand-lettered signs bearing Scripture and pot of chicken stew are all part of the Festival of Shelters, a gathering to highlight the experience of homelessness that is fashioned after the Hebrews’ time in the wilderness, as recalled in the Jewish Torah and Christian Old Testament.

The Rev. Russ Post-May of Anthony’s Plot, a Moravian intentional community, said the festival has provided an opportunity for un-housed and housed people to fellowship together and address some challenges that confront homeless people in Winston-Salem.

“We aren’t professionals,” he said. “We’re just a rag-tag group of people who sit down and have meals and have a gathering and talk with one another. We’ve heard some stories from people whose information might not be exactly right, but they at least have the opportunity to blow off some steam. We’ve also heard some of the same stories from different people, so that we know there must be some truth to it.”  

Some of the common complaints center on the way that homeless agencies handle emergency overflow shelter, Post-May said. The complaints led to a meeting with the agencies and some dialogue. 

“What if Bethesda [Center] called Anthony’s Plot every time they turned somebody down?” he said. “We’re saying, ‘We’ll give them another chance.’” 

Post-May said First Baptist Church on West 5th Street will serve as an emergency overflow shelter from December through March. Two paid staff members and about 40 volunteers will be on hand to receive those seeking shelter during the cold months. 

The group is also in discussion with library staff to provide free electricity so that homeless people can keep their mobile phones charged. 

“There’s a level of hospitality there,” he said. “That was the initiative that was laid on our plates by folks who were being turned away at the bus station. There’s a sign warning that it’s ‘larceny of electricity’ if you try to plug in your cell phone there. I also understand that there are drug deals going on. There are people running their enterprises. There was also an issue with cell phones getting stolen. People would plug in their cell phones and then go across the room to the seating, and the bus station just got tired of dealing with it. I get that there were some real reasons for stopping services.”

'Taser the homeless'

South Elm Street business owners met with District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny and members of Greensboro city staff on May 18 to discuss parking challenges. One of the issues of discussion was homelessness. Participants listed suggestions for dealing with various challenges on sticky notes.

Comments revealed intolerance for homeless people, and one directly advocated violating their human rights: "1) Make panhandling illegal, 2) Ban panhandling, 3) Don't allow panhandling, 4) No panhandling in BID, 5) Lose the panhandlers, 6) Bus homeless to Friendly, and 7) Taser the homeless."

Minutes indicate that the following individuals were in attendance: Alex Amoroso, Grey Davis, Becky Causey, Gregory George, Sidney Gray, Betty Cone, Jim Marshall, Seth Marshall, Ed Wolverton, Bruce Beaman, Kevin Danko, Simonne McClinton, William Heroy, Michael Schiftan, John Bailey, Catherine Chauvin and Pat Sawyer.

I wonder if anyone cares that such statements are made. And I wonder if any of the participants feel sufficiently embarrassed by the suggestion to taser the homeless that they might want to publicly distance themselves from it.

UPDATE, 5:47 p.m.: Matheny called me unprompted to clarify that the "taser the homeless" comment does not, in any way, reflect his viewpoint. The councilman said the woman who made the comment, whose name he does not recall, is an employee of a South Elm Street business.

"She made what I thought was a poor comment," Matheny told me. "There was no way that police would ever consider doing such an act."

The councilman also disavowed the comment advocating taking Spanish off the parking meters, which he said might have been made by the same person.

"I don't see the point in that," he said. "Those are derogatory comments of someone lashing out. It's not how I would talk."