On Oct. 10, the Greensboro City Council held a special meeting to approve funding to buy pallet shelters to provide housing for homeless people this winter.
At that meeting the City Council approved $535,000 to purchase 40 pallet shelters and it was estimated that what was named the “Doorway Project” would be up and running in January.
It appears now that the Doorway Project will be open ahead of schedule.
According to information provided by Mayor Nancy Vaughan, the city should receive the pallet shelters by Monday, Dec. 19 and they should be assembled by Friday, Dec. 23.
The plan is for people to be able to move into to the shelters by Christmas Eve, which should be a much appreciated Christmas gift for people who otherwise would be spending Christmas without a roof over their heads.
Vaughan said that the city had to wait for approval from the North Carolina Department of Insurance before placing the order for the 40 pallet shelters.
The pallet shelter village will be located at 3910 Clifton Road, the site of the former Folk Teen Center next to Pomona Park. Vaughan said that those living in the immediate area had been notified about the new city facility for the homeless going up in their neighborhood.
The pallet shelters provide 64 square feet of living space and each unit has two single beds.
In November, the City Council allocated an additional $200,000 for “security/case/site management” for the Doorway Project. The Interactive Resource Center (IRC) was the only agency that submitted an application to manage the project and reportedly is currently advertising for positions related to the Doorway Project.
Continuum of Care service providers will make referrals for people to be housed in the pallet shelters and the city plans to follow the same procedure that is already in place to provide housing.
Complete inefficient waste of money. There will be a high cost to sustain these temporary Structures and this area will be one even more of a cesspit. I feel sorry for the tax paying property owners on the area
$13,375 doesn’t buy you much these days. Oh well, It’s just money. They will be trashed very quickly and I can’t imagine having to manage that site. $200,000 to manage that project is just the beginning.
Will be interesting to follow and see how this expense works out.
Having spent such a large amount of OUR money, I certainly hope that the pallet homes are a great success. However, I’m not holding my breath. I’ll give them until Spring to be trashed.
I wonder just how long it will be before this spend golly will be continued before it’s considered a failure.
A total feel-good-er waste of money. These will be trashed soon enough. “Build it and they will come”.
Rehab or jail – they will go where the free money is. “Live free or die”.
Yikes, the residents near the former former AHA full of unaccompanied thugs may be getting the better deal. Presumably there will be a smidgen of security there.
How much insurance coverage and at what expense?Fires have been an issue with these popup shelters. Can Greensboro residents now circumvent building codes for small/popup/tiny homes? This is an example of rushed, expensive , feel good, underfunded bandaid type of government layout of funds that just like the hotel.thst was bought last time that is sitting idle.
40 units on 1/3 acre just boggles my mind. The soon to be fully populated little “resort” will limp along, with an average of 2-3 (or more) police calls every 24 hours until Summer. The Council, just to save face will pump (our) money and resources into it for a good 7 months until the units are trashed and the community around it and government agencies get fed up and they sell the little buildings at auction. (I may be interested to make a bid; they look like prospective goat sheds.) Suggestion: No outside (picnic) tables or chairs. No basketball hoops, cornhole setups, snack or drink machines. Nothing to encourage loitering, congregating or attract youngsters. So, my prediction is: The Council will see that their little pet project squeaks by until summer; or until there is a huge scandal such as murder(s). Within months, the camel’s back will be broken, and the Council will bug out, declare it a successful experiment, scold us that we need to just move on and concentrate on more important business than our obsession with silly old news. Of course, the media will abide and drop the subject like it never happened. Well, you know, like Biden out of Afghanistan. Old News. Nothing for us little nosey people to do or concern ourselves with other than to pay our taxes.
Virtue signalling. Somebody on the council got a payday.
All these comments and not one had a single idea of HOW TO HELP….how about y’all MEET me and the site and volunteer some TIME, maybe if we ALL monitored the project/site, it won’t be the failure that many of you are already calling it. But I’m sure I will be the only volunteer, since people find it mucher easier to just WHINE and not help in some fashion. What are you guys doing to help STOP crime and homelessness……from the looks of these comments, you guys are happy sitting in your warm houses and pretending these issues don’t exist! Solutions are needed not more complaints
Will there be bathrooms nearby and clean running water?
What kind of restrictions does the city have about occupancy, etc.?What about the other people that don’t get a shelter? What about all the govt policies that promote and reinforce poverty? I mean the Dims have had an over sixty year plus war on Poverty. And I think it’s worse. Feel good bs like bike lanes that are virtually unused and dredging and “stream improvement” on Buffalo Creek, amongst others.
Who is going to be the persons who clean these small houses? There is going to be needs for maids and cleaning persons that will keep these homes decent to live in every day and night that they are used otherwise they will become unfit to live in. And the grounds will need care too. And these services will cost quit a large amount of money. There will never be an end to the cost of this project. And where will they get their food? People can’t survive without food. Will the taxpayers supply their food too? Lots of questions to be answered.
It is surprising that the City didn’t care enough to reach out to the nonProfit who has a commercial shared used kitchen inside the Folk Teen Center with 25 food entrepreneurs to inform them of this decision. Isn’t it always those great ideas that are always placed in someone else’s neighborhood?
Is the property zoned for multi-family housing???? Was there a meeting where the local residents could voice their opinions? Will there be a special full time police presence in the “neighborhood”? Do the residents have any rules or restrictions about their use? Who assigns the “roommates” since these are 2 person shelters? If I tried to do this on property that I owned, the City would find every reason to block it. This is one of the most stupid acts that the council has done and they have a long list of stupid acts.
A whole lot of assumptions and uninformed complaining in these responses. These have been very successful temporary options used in other cities around the country. As with any endeavor, proper planning and management has to be a part of it, but what makes everyone think the city is building a shanty-town and walking away? There will be access to a communal kitchen, toilets and showers for the residents, (maybe thru the existing center on the property, or trailered facilities). There are rules to qualify and stay in one of these shelters, just as in any shelter situation. They can even be a safer option (especially for women) than communal shelters,, allowing the residents to lock their doors at night. Violence, drugs, even noise violations, etc are not tolerated, and evictions are swift for the serious stuff.
Could the whole thing be poorly done and fail? Sure. There is that risk with any new project. But until better options, better facilities, better mental health services and better ideas come along, doing SOMEthing for the unhoused during a tough winter is the minimum we can provide. It lowers crime and police complaints, drug overdoses, and unnecessary hospitalizations (all drains on municipal resources) and offers some stability and dignity for the folks in need.
Looks like Greensboro should be named little San Francisco. Wait until the word gets out and the influx of homeless to GSO because they heard that the tax payers will house and feed them. Take the ones that want to rehabilitate and help them, take the ones that just want to be homeless and bus them to a Sanctuary city.
Don Milhoin, it is surprising they didn’t reach out to the non-profit with the kitchen, but ALSO to the ARC of GSO and Special Olympics who use this fields to practice and play the Challenger League at this location. The ONLY, I repeat ONLY accessible ball field in Greensboro for people with disabilities to use. Brandt Taylor in 2009 raised the money himself as an Eagle Scout project, to install the very expensive materials (over 200k) to make this field accessible for children with disabilities to have a place to have recreation. The materials used will not withstand this type of use! There are certainly other areas that the city owns to put the pallet houses! I’m not opposed to people having an inside place to stay! Just not this location!
Please City of Greensboro, don’t destroy the ONLY place the children with disabilities have to play on Saturday mornings, (practices start in March) to give other less fortunate people a place to stay. Will the City build it back? I don’t think so! They didn’t build one before this and they built the ONLY accessible playground in Keely park where SCAT busses don’t go. People/children with disabilities seem to be the last on the list to be considered important! Please reconsider the location!
This project is a joke, with no respect to the Community around the area, and no respect to the homeless and Disable population. So, in the middle of the night you must go out to go to a bathroom, shame. What kind of security is there too protect these vulnerable persons. We as a Community should do better. How are roommates choosen, do you get the same facility each night, etc? This project to me was just thrown together with NO input from other tax payers in the City, I’m of the belief that we could have done something much safer, with RESPECT to others. So, what was the consensus in the Community where these structures will be. SHAME ON YOU, City Council and Michelle Kennedy.