What's the status of Fayetteville, Cumberland County plans to help the homeless community?

Several years after Hurricane Matthew hit Cumberland County in 2016 and Fayetteville was notified it'd receive federal funding to build a homeless day center, both the city and county are taking on the issue.

City officials dropped the county from the application in 2019, after county officials were hesitant to pay for consulting costs that the state required in the application process to release the federal funds.

But now it appears the two government entities are working together to address homelessness while taking on separate projects.

Members of the Fayetteville - Cumberland Liaison Committee were updated on the efforts to help the area’s homeless population during a Jan. 19 special meeting.

Assistant County Manager Tracy Jackson told the committee that a separate Homeless Advisory Committee plans to hold its first meeting in February.

The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, with topics to include considering a charter for the Homeless Committee, establishing officers and discussions about the city’s proposed homeless day center, the county’s proposed homeless shelter and a homeless strategic plan.

Cumberland County commissioners and the Fayetteville City Council amended an interlocal agreement in December to appoint a committee that would develop a strategic plan for tackling homelessness.

According to the agreement, the Homeless Advisory Committee will include two county commissioners, two council members, a deputy city manager, an assistant county manager and county community development representative, the chair of Continuum of Care and a representative from Cumberland County Schools.

Fayetteville/Cumberland County Continuum of Care is an organization that coordinates homeless assistance.

According to the local agreement, “the parties will jointly fund a data and evaluation analyst and associated programs and services” to cover costs to execute “the undertaking in accordance as budgeted and approved by the parties.”

According to Cumberland County documents, during a Sept. 20 liaison meeting, Mayor Mitch Colvin sought guidance about the city’s homeless day center to see if the project was something for both entities to collaborate on.

Commissioner Glenn Adams, chairman of the liaison committee in 2021, brought the question before fellow commissioners during an Oct. 14 agenda session.

Commissioner Toni Stewart said she preferred that the city handle the day center and the county focus on the shelter, according to county records.

Adams agreed with Stewart that the two projects should be separate but said the Homeless Committee would be the organization for both city and county to work together.

Adams made a motion that the city would need to pay for the day center and that no county assets would support it, though the county and city would work together through the interlocal agreement for tackling homelessness.

Commissioners voted 4-3 to support Adams’ motion, with Commissioners Stewart, Charles Evans and Jimmy Keefe opposing.

Stewart has previously served as executive director of the Hope Center, a shelter for homeless women.

Evans, who was homeless during the 1980s, has previously said he supported the county partnering with the city for the homeless day center.

“I was homeless in Washington, D.C., and I did not have a clue as to where to go to find the information that I needed to be a productive member of that community," he previously said.

Evans said some homeless people “are really trying to make their lives better — really trying to live that life that other citizens are living and being productive in our community.”

According to Cumberland County’s 2020 Point-in-Time homeless count survey, 300 people in Cumberland County experienced homelessness, with 165 unsheltered, 38 living in emergency shelters and 94 living with someone else in "traditional housing,” that year.

The county did not conduct the annual homeless survey in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cumberland County homeless center

County documents say planning for homeless center funding will be determined based on the number of beds, who will be served, the facility size and construction costs.

Engineering costs are estimated at $250,000.

County documents from this month outline a process for getting proposals related to commercial real estate brokerage services for the site selection process, with a Feb. 18 proposal due date.

Draft documents from the commissioners' Jan. 13 meeting say that Cumberland County is a recipient of Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds that will be allocated from the U.S. Department of Treasury as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

According to county documents, the county held a series of public meetings for resident input to identify priorities.

County commissioners hired a Canada-based group, OrgCode Consulting Inc., in January 2021 to conduct a homeless study of the community so the commissioners can work to implement resources.

At the board's Aug. 2 meeting, OrgCode Consulting revealed housing and emergency beds as top needs for those experiencing homelessness in Cumberland County. The group was contracted in January to do a study on the homeless community's needs.

The board approved using $250,000 to cover an architect, engineering, design and securing land for a homeless shelter.

More: Cumberland County commissioners move ahead with implementing homeless needs survey, homeless shelter

City homeless day center

During the council’s June 28 meeting, the council approved using a former 12,800-square-foot music venue that is a warehouse at 128 King St. for the city’s day center.

The design contract for the center was awarded to Raleigh-based architectural firm IBI Group.

The firm has designed a day center in Raleigh — Oak City Cares — that is being used as a model for Fayetteville's day center.

Fayetteville’s center is estimated to cost about $4 million, which would primarily come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development via the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency.

At a May 13 county commissioners' meeting, community development director Chris Cauley said the city initially planned to use the funds to build a shelter for emergencies such as hurricanes and flooding.

During the planning stages, however, the idea of also using it as a homeless day center came to fruition.

The plan is that the day center would covert into an emergency center.

Services provided at the day center will range from case management to getting homeless to their next step, Cauley said.

The day center could also have resources such as a childcare center and possibly a dental clinic once a month, he said. It will also feature a warming kitchen, but food won't be prepared on site, he said.

Similar to Raleigh's center, plans for Fayetteville's day center include shower and laundry facilities, as well as offices. Also included in plans so far is an area for people to use computers and charge their devices.

Model center

The city is trying to model its homeless day center after Oak City Cares in Raleigh, but on a smaller scale.

It costs more than $750,000 a year to operate Oak City Cares, which was developed in a 20,300-square-foot former tobacco warehouse.

The ongoing operational expenses are shared by Wake County, Raleigh and the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh.

Wake County pays for security, electricity, building maintenance and enough water to provide 80 showers and wash 30 to 40 loads of laundry a day.

The center in Raleigh was built as the result of a collaboration among Wake County, the city of Raleigh and Oak City Cares. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh created the nonprofit agency to coordinate multiple services provided by Wake County nonprofit groups and Wake County human services agencies in one hub.

The diocese, whose employees operate the center, led a $2.5 million community fundraising campaign to get the center off the ground. That money is used to pay the agency’s share of operating costs for the first few years, buy furniture and maintain a $400,000 reserve fund. Wake County pitched in $7 million, and the city of Raleigh contributed $3.4 million to purchase and renovate the 20,300-square-foot former tobacco warehouse.

More: What can Fayetteville and Cumberland officials learn from Raleigh's homeless day center?

Homeless residents weigh in

Thomas Riley, who is part of Fayetteville’s homeless community, told the Fayetteville Observer in May that the day center should include showers.

He said homeless people in Fayetteville currently use baby wipes they buy from a dollar store to clean up.

His mother-in-law Terri Little said laundry would be good.

Riley’s wife, Jessica Riley, said resources to find jobs and computer access would be useful.

Larry Jonson, who is also part of Fayetteville’s homeless population, said access to a phone, shelter and clothing would also be helpful, along with resources to help people medically.

More: What does Fayetteville's homeless community want from a day center? Here's what some said.

Prior delays

Fayetteville was notified it would receive about $3.8 in federal Hurricane Matthew disaster recovery funds, after the 2016 storm, to build a homeless day center.

Frustrated at the delays, in October 2019 city officials took over the application process from county officials, who balked at spending money on consultants to gather information the state requested in the application process.

The state wanted a more detailed application, which city officials said required the hiring of consultants.

Former Board of Commissioners Chairman Marshall Faircloth told the Fayetteville Observer in January 2020 that commissioners were unwilling to spend tax money on consultants to submit the application without knowing the grant would be forthcoming.

Faircoth said commissioners faced more pressing funding priorities at that time than a homeless day center, including providing clean water in the Gray’s Creek area and school funding.

The council approved a sub-recipient agreement with the N.C. Department of Public Safety, Office of Recovery and Resiliency for it to handle the grant process.

The city spent about $300,000 to hire an architectural firm and a firm to conduct a community survey on the center.

The firm that conducted the survey, Fountainworks, led seven focus groups to get input from stakeholders, the public and community leaders.

The community outreach effort found that across all survey groups, “showers and laundry facilities were the top priority,” and dining services were also a priority.

The next tier of priorities includes on-site medical clinic facilities, classroom space, capacity for emergency sheltering and access to computers/phones/Wi-Fi,” the Fountainworks report states.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville City Council starting Homeless Advisory Committee