‘We have a broken system.’ New group to tackle Wake County’s homelessness crisis.
Local leaders meeting for the first time as a new task force on Wake County’s growing homelessness crisis got a quick warning this week from one the group’s members. .
Trey McBrayer has been homeless and now works as a rapid responder for Healing Transitions, which provides shelter and recovery services for people. The people he works with are concerned about this new group.
“They know about the task force,” he said. “They are concerned about the term ‘task force.’ I am too. It doesn’t sound like help is here.”
Addressing the crisis isn’t as easy as giving someone a place to stay, he told The News & Observer in an interview. It’s about building trust and meeting people where they are, he said.
“It’s just a matter of opening up the dialogue and having good follow through,” McBrayer said. “When I say I’m going to be there, I go. When I tell them a certain time, I’m there. When I tell them I’m bringing something for them, I make sure I have it. That’s how you build the trust.
“Not everybody wants recovery,” he explained. “You know, I have to be mindful of that. Even though I’m in recovery. I don’t preach that. I meet them where they’re at. And I can be an example of what recovery may look like. And if and when they’re ready, they know they already have somebody on a team.”
The group is co-chaired by Wake County Commissioner Vickie Adamson and Raleigh City Council member Stormie Forte, and has 15 members from various backgrounds including government, nonprofit, business and law enforcement. The group, which met for the first Thursday, also includes people who have been homelessness.
The group plans to meet once a month until next February and to finish recommendations in time to be included in Raleigh’s and Wake County’s fiscal 2024-25 budgets.
This won’t be a plan that sits on a shelf somewhere for years, Adamson said.
‘A broken system’
“The reality is that right now we have a broken system in Wake County,” said Deputy Wake County Manager Duane Holder.
“Unfortunately we are not coordinated.,” he said. “The good news is that there is a system. There is a system. But the bad news is that it’s not working the way it should be working.”
There were 1,534 people reported homeless in 2022, as of the federally required point in time count. That was a nearly 70% increase from 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic and continued growth in the county has contributed to the increase, Adamson said.
This is an escalating issue for the city of Raleigh, said Forte, who pushed for the creation of this task force.
“If you lose housing, you get so disconnected from so many things,” she said. “You know, to hear that we’ve got potentially 6,000 students in Wake County who are unsheltered, imagine the stress that puts on them trying to learn every day.
“I have been hearing that we’ve got more senior citizens who are experiencing homelessness,”she added. “Imagine that you’ve lived your entire life having housing stability and you get to your senior years and now you don’t have it.”
The first meeting included introductions from all the task force members and their connections to the homelessness crisis. At the end, Adamson asked everyone to come back with a better name for the group to call itself as it moves forward.
