Raleigh City Council approves pilot program to address homelessness

Council approved $5 million in funding.Photo byNate JohnstononUnsplash

By Mia Khatib

mia.khatib@triangletribune.com

RALEIGH — In response to the increase in homeless camps and unsheltered residents across the city, Raleigh City Council recently approved $5 million in funding to pilot a program aimed at reducing homelessness.

The program combines three main strategies: offering direct housing assistance to unsheltered residents, increasing financial support for the city’s larger homelessness services support system, and supporting a coordinated community response to homelessness.

“In the City of Raleigh, there's an exponential increase in the number of people living outside in camps just in the last few years,” Raleigh Housing and Neighborhoods Director Emila Sutton said. “This plan will target folks and provide case management, supportive services and what is the actual solution to homelessness — access to permanent housing.”

Of the funds allocated to the Unsheltered Homelessness Response Pilot Program, $1.9 million will be used to provide monthly rent subsidies to 40 families living in camps, and nearly $2 million will go to repairing city-owned affordable housing units for people exiting homelessness. The remaining sum will assist in program administration and staffing.

Sutton told The Tribune the city is in conversation with multiple community partners, including Wake County’s Landlord Engagement Unit, to see how it can take part. Before implementing the program, she said they must secure waivers from the state to ensure the direct housing assistance doesn’t impact residents’ other government benefits like food stamps.

“We're going through the process now of receiving those waivers. Other communities who have done this work say that that can take some time,” she said. “We’re hopeful soon. This is an emergency situation, and we really want to be able to work very quickly.”

Similar programs in communities like Denver and Houston have proved to be successful. Denver reported an increase in employment for unsheltered residents who received $1,000 in direct assistance for a year, Sutton said, and Houston found that housing a homeless person saves the city $76,000 per year.

Last month, Wake County ordered residents to leave an encampment on U.S. 70 or risk arrest for trespassing. Sutton said Raleigh’s Parks and Recreation Department reports close to 50 sites where people are living outside on department-owned property. She believes the pilot program is cost-effective, not only for the homelessness but for the wider community.

“Instead of spending thousands on temporary fixes like clearing homeless camps, which we know costs a lot of money — the city in particular spent about $200,000 just in the last year in the Parks Department on clearing out camps — investing in the pilot program is just a much smarter way to go about this,” she said.

Raleigh Council member Mary Black added that while development and city planning can help address the affordable housing crisis, “it doesn’t get to the people on the fringes.” With high rents, low-wage earners, retail workers and even teachers are struggling to secure permanent housing in Raleigh.

“Sometimes, when we're talking about people experiencing homelessness, compassion is not always granted. We see that with the disruption of encampments across the city… with policies across the country that [criminalize] homelessness or urbanization that makes it harder for homeless people to exist outside,” Black told The Tribune. “I think this is moving us in the direction of a city that has been very innovative, very thoughtful and very compassionate.”

Mia Khatib, who covers affordable housing and gentrification, is a Report for America corps member.