10-Year Homelessness Plan
Raleigh and the towns in Wake County are wonderful places to call home. We who live here take great pride in our capital city and smaller communities that are attractive, lively, and welcoming places to live. For most of us.
There is another side to our communities that most of us see only in passing. This is the shadowland of want, hunger and desperation. Far too many Raleigh and Wake County residents can't afford even the lowest rents, and barely make it from one month to the next. For others, personal problems, such as poor health, mental illness, or substance abuse interfere with their ability to succeed on their own. Still others experience domestic violence, or can't speak English, or age out of foster care, or are released from prison or jail with no job skills or support system.
Many individuals and families live in precarious circumstances. A portion of them lose their homes, most for days, others for much longer. They rely on emergency shelters and food programs, or makeshift camps in the woods. The most visible subsist on city streets, where they are a disturbing part of the urban landscape and a harsh reminder of our systems' failings.
The people of Raleigh and Wake County are not short on compassion. Faith-based and other local groups provide meals, clothing, and temporary beds. Non-profit agencies offer services, support, and shelter for people who are homeless and at risk of becoming so. Municipal, state and federal agencies contribute significant dollars, staff, and expertise to these programs and initiatives. And yet, homelessness and the accompanying despair continue to grow.
It is high time we reverse this trend. Homelessness is a blight that harms all of us. Police, hospitals, and jails spend an inordinate amount of public resources on people for whom the main problem is lack of a home and stabilizing services. Businesses and community groups are continually frustrated in their efforts to "clean up" the streets, knowing full well that the holes in our social safety net mean that improvements are only temporary. School officials wring their hands over the numbers of students whose learning is hampered by being in constant crisis -- living in unstable, unsafe, and unsettled circumstances, and changing schools many times a year.
The network of homeless shelters and services is a band-aid approach to a critical condition. We need solution-oriented strategies. Ensuring affordable housing, effective medical and behavioral health treatment, family supports, and opportunities for work and other meaningful activities is both more humane and more cost-effective than maintaining an ever-expanding "homeless service system." We must attack the causes of homelessness, not just the results.
Please join us in ending homelessness in our community. Take part in The 10-Year Action Plan.
For more information about the 10-Year Action Plan, please check out the following: