Featured photo: The city’s Housing Programs Manager Shereka Floyd describes the white flag program to city councilmembers.

Frigid temperatures this time of year are dangerous for people experiencing homelessness. As of January 2023, there are 468 homeless individuals in Forsyth County— 301 sheltered and 167 unsheltered.

In Winston-Salem, the city is spending $40,000 to operate a white flag shelter, a drop-in shelter where people can be protected from the harsh elements. Funds will be used to pay overnight monitors and provide meals. 

The shelter will open on nights when temperatures are predicted to be 32 degrees or below, as well as 38 degrees or below when there is a chance of precipitation. City with Dwellings will run the program. Headquartered at 502 N. Broad Street, the community center serves as the primary resource for the city’s unhoused patrons. The organization provides unsheltered people with a “safe space, housing assistance, advocacy, transportation, and access to resources,” according to their website. The city-funded program will be located at the center’s headquarters in The Hub at Augsburg Community Center.

The white flag shelter can host a maximum of 40 individuals. For more information, email Winter Shelter Director Krista O’Connell at [email protected]. 

In July, City with Dwellings received $104,020 from the city in the current budget — $27,500 of which is designated for street outreach. Last year, City with Dwellings received $32,000 in funding from the city for street outreach. The rest of the allotted funding, $76,520 worth, is designated for a new request from the organization to create a “one stop shop” that will provide medical, mental health, substance use, housing information and benefits advocacy services.

All CityBeat reporting content is made possible by a grant from the NC Local News Lab Fund, available to republish for free by any news outlet who cares to use it. Learn More ↗

Republish this story 🞬

Republishing Content

All content created for the CityBeat— photos, illustrations and text — is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 license (CCA-ND).

These republishing rules DO NOT apply to all of our content. The CityBeat is a nonprofit-funded position that specifically reports on city council business in Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

You are free to republish all content from the CityBeat under the following conditions:

  • Please copy and paste an html tracking code into articles you post online, allowing us to access analytics on our work.
    It can be dropped onto the page right beneath the copyable content, available below.

    If your site is using Google Analytics already:

    <script>
    gtag('config', 'UA-49884744-1');
    gtag('event', 'page_view', {
        page_title: 'City of W-S funds white-flag shelter for unhoused community',
        page_location: 'https://triad-city-beat.com/city-of-w-s-funds-white-flag-shelter-for-unhoused-community/',
        send_to: 'UA-49884744-1'
    });
</script>

    If your site is not using Google Analytics: 

    <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-49884744-1"></script>
<script>
    window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
    function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
    gtag('js', new Date());
    gtag('config', 'UA-49884744-1');
    gtag('event', 'page_view', {
        page_title: 'City of W-S funds white-flag shelter for unhoused community',
        page_location: 'https://triad-city-beat.com/city-of-w-s-funds-white-flag-shelter-for-unhoused-community/',
        send_to: 'UA-49884744-1'
    });
</script>

  • Please use our bylines with attribution to Triad City Beat with a live link to our website: "by Gale Melcher/Triad City Beat"
  • At the bottom of the article (print or web) please include this text (links may be hyperlinked online):

    "Triad City Beat is an independent, for-profit news source serving the cities of the NC Piedmont Triad in Guilford and Forsyth counties, online at triad-city-beat.com.
    CityBeat content is funded by a grant from the NC Local News Lab Fund, online at nclocalnews.org."

  • If you have any questions, please contact Brian Clarey at [email protected]

Join the First Amendment Society, a membership that goes directly to funding TCB‘s newsroom.

We believe that reporting can save the world.

The TCB First Amendment Society recognizes the vital role of a free, unfettered press with a bundling of local experiences designed to build community, and unique engagements with our newsroom that will help you understand, and shape, local journalism’s critical role in uplifting the people in our cities.

All revenue goes directly into the newsroom as reporters’ salaries and freelance commissions.

⚡ Join The Society ⚡