On Thursday, Aug. 1, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners will accept a state grant from NC Department of Public Safety that will assist the county in funding a transitional living program for those 18 to 21 years of age who might otherwise be homeless.
The initiative will be part of the county’s “Youth Focus Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Transitional Living Program” for the Guilford County area during fiscal year 2024-2025, the fiscal year that just began on July 1.
The HEARTH program has been helping young adults on the verge of homelessness in Guilford County since 2017 and has been operating under the current model since late 2022. Some big changes took place after the state’s Department of Public Safety first awarded Youth Focus ‘start-up’ funds for fiscal year 2022-2023, to establish the current HEARTH program model.
Guilford County – like the cities of Greensboro and High Point – has begun a major push to address homelessness in the area. Until about seven years ago, the issue was hardly talked about by the county commissioners and rarely came up at all at county meetings.
Back then, it was seen as a problem that fell into the orbit of the cities.
However, Guilford County took on a lot of those responsibilities and, in recent years, the county has been extremely active in addressing homelessness. Two years ago, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston created the Guilford County Task Force on Homelessness after he said that there were multiple groups in the county attacking the problem but not in a coordinated way.
The chairman said at the time, “Not everyone is on the same page – everyone is going in their own direction.”
Alston said later that, now, there’s a wholesale, coordinated and comprehensive effort to address the problem – and even, eventually, eliminate it.
Early in 2023, Alston set the highly ambitious goal of getting every homeless person in the county off the streets before the weather turned cold that year. That led to some heavy pressure on county staff, though, needless to say, all those efforts didn’t solve the homeless problem before that winter, and now there’s hope the county can meet that goal by this winter.
Programs such as this one are each just a part of the solution.
The issue of homelessness has also moved this year onto the front burner for the City of Greensboro since many downtown Greensboro business owners and residents have been upset about the problems caused by the homeless in their area.
The current HEARTH program provides “supportive housing for male, female, and nonconforming youth ages 18 to 21 who are experiencing homelessness, or young adults who have aged out of the foster care system, with on-site supervised, yet independent living environment.”
As part of the HEARTH service, clients are taught the “independent living skills” they need to avoid homelessness.
According to information provided to the commissioners by county staff, “Transitional housing along with living expenses and programming relating to independent living skills are provided to all participants. Participants set transitional goals specific to their situation to transition from the program into stable housing; to obtain high school diploma or a GED and /or a college degree; receive vocational training to gain and maintain employment; all to fulfill a transition into independent living.”
The program accepts referrals statewide and those benefiting from it have an average stay of 275 days.
Guilford County expects to receive about $200,000 for the program in the current fiscal year.
Under the arrangement with Guilford County, the NC Department of Public Safety will take on all the responsibilities of vetting the program’s services and making sure the money is spent for its intended purpose.
The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act money ultimately comes from a US Housing and Urban Development program that was signed into law in 2009. It amended the previous McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act in major ways.
The HEARTH Act places emphasis on education of the young adults as a key to helping them not end up on the streets. It includes four “education assurance” requirements for those who accept the money.
The service providers participating must establish policies and practices that support children’s educational rights under federal law and ensure that those in the program are in school.
The school system helps identify homeless children, youth, and families that may be prospects for the program.
This one’s easy. Let’s just stop the drugs pouring into Guilford County.
Sadly, it seems like the more help we are offering to homeless people, the more homeless people Greensboro seems to attract. Maybe there is another way? Not saying that I know what it is. Just saying what Greensboro keeps doing doesn’t appear to be decreasing the homeless population.
More money thrown down a rat hole
Love that vocational training is a piece of the puzzle!
The program should include vocational training, job skills, mental and physical health components, and daily living skills to support self-sustainability. Having a high school diploma or GED is not enough to help a young person know how to obtain and maintain housing.
I think that this is great. Guilford dint give up on them. They’re a part of our future just like every other young adult and they need a chance just like we all did to make bad choices and mistakes and to learn from them.
Rehab, or jail. Bus them to the center of liberal thinking in NC, Chapel Hill.