In a push for transparency, Interactive Resource Center staff hold a town hall, answer community questions

Featured photo: At a community meeting on Oct. 1, IRC staff answered questions from the audience and addressed concerns. (photo by Sayaka Matsuoka)

Note: This piece was updated to include reporting by the News and Record about city councilmembers’ comments during the Tuesday council meeting regarding the IRC.

Nestled in the back room of Scuppernong Books on Tuesday evening, activist and writer Gwen Frisbie-Fulton looked the panelists in the eye and praised them for being there.

“I’ve been involved in or running nonprofits for over 20 years, and I’ve never seen a nonprofit have an open conversation like this with their community,” she said. “I just wanted to thank you.”

It was the end of the night and the staff of the Interactive Resource Center, who had held a community forum for the last hour, softened their faces and smiled. The group of about two dozen attendees clapped in agreement with Frisbie-Fulton’s sentiment.

It’s been a long and difficult couple of months for the staff at Greensboro’s day center for the unhoused community. Since the organization went 24/7 in January of this year, the center has seen an unprecedented spike — a more than 100-percent increase — in the number of clients served. And that’s caused increased scrutiny from the community, surrounding businesses and the media.

“We want an opportunity to tell our story because the last couple of months have been really hard,” said Deonna Sayed, the IRC’s development director. 

Tuesday’s event comes off the back of a press conference held on Sept. 25 in which IRC staff aimed to shift the narrative around the center to a focus on the services that the organization provides and a look at the stark realities facing organizations that work with unhoused communities. 

“Everybody else has been telling our story, but we have a lot of incredible stories to tell at a moment that, in our community and across the nation, we are seeing an unprecedented number of people experiencing homelessness,” Sayed explained on Tuesday. “And this is not just something that’s happening at the IRC; it is happening all over our city, all over our country, our state and our nation and it probably isn’t going to get any better anytime soon.”

During Tuesday’s event, IRC staff members Sayed, Finance Manager Melanie Yokeley, Executive Director Kristina Singleton, Director of Programs Benita Curtain and PATH Team Lead Nakia Brown answered questions from the audience in a forum that lasted about an hour. 

On the IRC’s relationship with city, county leaders

One of the first questions that the staff addressed was the center’s relationship with city leaders and Greensboro City Council. This past summer, the IRC made news when council paused funding to the center, citing concerns about safety. In early August, the organization secured $463,000 in funding from the city, which will help them stay operational through the end of the year.

Singleton said the narrative that the organization has a contentious relationship with city council is false.

“What I can tell you is that we value the partnership that we have with the city,” Singleton said. “It’s not that they’ve never done anything. It’s not this story that has been put out in the press of us versus them.”

(UPDATED 10/3, 5:30 p.m.): However, reporting by the News and Record shows that the IRC was again a topic of hot conversation this week. At the same time as the community forum, councilmembers met for their regular meeting and discussed their thoughts on the IRC. Councilmembers Zach Matheny and Sharon Hightower expressed concerns about continuing to fund the organization while Mayor Nancy Vaughan stressed the need for metal detectors for safety. Several councilmembers suggested that the center go back to operating during the day only.

“Yeah, go to a day center and then get back on track but right now it’s out of control,” Hightower said.

At the community forum, Singleton noted that they’ve gotten other funding from council including money for their Doorway Project, or the pop-up Pallet shelters which house people from November-March. The program will once again kick off next month and house 82 people this year.

According to Singleton, the organization is also in conversation with Guilford County leaders to secure additional funding. They’ve also received funding from the state to continue their PATH team, the IRC’s street outreach program.

When asked how much money it costs to run the center, Singleton said that if the organization continues to run 24/7 that the cost will be about $2.6 million this year. 

“We have to raise $600,000 each year to cover expenses,” she said.

The staff also touched on practices that the city has implemented in the last few years that made the situation at the IRC much more difficult. When asked a question by former IRC Director and founder Liz Seymour about whether the city is still sweeping up camps, Brown, the IRC’s PATH Team lead, answered affirmatively.

“Yes, they will do sweeps, usually during big events,” Brown said, pointing out times leading up to the Folk Festival and NC A&T State University homecoming.

When city staff do this, it pushes unhoused people to find somewhere else to stay, including the IRC, which is not technically a shelter but has been letting people sleep on its floors for months now.

“People are showing up with all of their belongings,” Brown explained.

These days the IRC staff has a relationship with some Greensboro police officers who will call the organization when they come across an encampment. Instead of immediately clearing the area out, they’ll let IRC staff make contact with the individuals to let them know what to do next. And that’s important for IRC staff, who not only operate the day center but also do outreach to homeless people on the streets. 

“It makes it hard for our job,” said Brown, who leads the outreach team. “If they move, it makes it harder to find where they are.”

Clarifying the IRC’s role, urging other orgs to ‘step back up’

Another myth that IRC staff busted during the town hall was the idea that the center acts as a be-all-end-all place for combatting homelessness.

“The IRC is at the ground level of need,” Sayed said. “There is no other organization at our level.”

As a low-barrier center, the Interactive Resource Center is the only organization in the city that does not turn away people for pre-existing conditions such as substance use. Other organizations that run shelters often have requirements of people to use their services or run on restricted hours, IRC staff said. That means that when an unhoused individual needs immediate resources such as a shower, wi-fi access or a way to do laundry, they often come to the IRC first. Staff also mentioned how area hospitals will drop people off at the center after they’ve been discharged.

“The challenges are all huge,” said Yokeley. “We’re a little agency in a big pond trying to do what we can.”

Additionally, the IRC staff urged people in attendance to hold other organizations that work with the homeless community to account. As a day shelter where people have been sleeping at night, IRC staff said that other services like the Greensboro Urban Ministry, which has a shelter, need to “step back up.”

“As our numbers have increased, it is not a place for families,” Curtain said when responding to a question about why the center does not shelter families. “We’ve never been an organization that was targeted to serve families.”

The IRC providing shelter at night for clients — who often sleep on the floors of the center — comes in the wake of the Salvation Army’s closure of its shelter in 2022. Other shelters such as Weaver House, run by Greensboro Urban Ministry, is currently operating at partial capacity even as some unhoused people have been told they would have to wait weeks to access beds.

“We need people to know that they’re not doing their part so we can hold them accountable,” Curtain said.

As far as safety and the increase in the number of people at the center, Singleton noted that they don’t kick anyone off of the property. That’s why sometimes, there are people who hang outside of the building and in the parking lot. Unless there’s a threat of immediate harm to staff or other community members, they don’t call the police either.

“We believe in community and community helps each other and polices each other,” Singleton said. “Our status is to be low barrier and we don’t believe in criminalizing homelessness.”

That’s why the center, which has a security guard onsite now, doesn’t used armed guards. As for the effect that the center’s location has on surrounding businesses, Singleton said they just try to be good neighbors.

“But we don’t kick people out,” she said. “They are adults with autonomy.”

Advocating for permanent supportive housing

A recurring theme throughout the night was the push by IRC staff for permanent supportive housing as a solution to the growing number of homeless people in the area. As described on the city of Greensboro’s website, permanent supportive housing — or PSH — is permanent housing for people with disabilities who are experiencing chronic homelessness. In addition to housing, residents get access to medical and mental-health services, case management, job training and assistance with disability applications. According to the city’s website, the state has awarded the city $2.6 million to construct 16 permanent supportive housing units off of West Vandalia Road for homeless individuals and families. 

The model, which has been replicated across the country, works, Singleton said.

“The data proves it,” she said. “It’s a science that works. It’s something that we need here.”

The idea stems from the push for a housing-first model, which has garnered support across the country. Rather than trying to cure people of their disabilities or ailments such as substance abuse before they get housing, data shows that having safe housing first helps individuals overcome their difficulties.

According to a 2021 systematic review of 26 programs in the US and Canada, housing-first programs decreased homelessness by 88 percent and improved housing stability by 41 percent. The model also showed health benefits and reduced health services used.

“The problem is that it costs a lot of money,” Singleton said. “This goes back to city council and the county… we need all of you to advocate for it.”

It just makes sense, IRC staff said during the Tuesday town hall. When asked what their biggest challenge is, the staff concurred, housing.

Housing reduces the number of homeless people and would make the IRC’s day to day operations easier. Staff didn’t say that it would solve homelessness outright, but that it would lessen the load.

“Ideally the IRC would always be there for a day center,” Singleton said. 

Advocating for these models comes at a crucial point, staff said. With the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, centers like the IRC are gearing up for an influx of newly unhoused people from the western part of the state. They can’t be the only ones bearing the load of helping the unhoused community, IRC staff said. That means other organizations as well as the community need to push for solutions beyond the day center, they said.

“We need to get uncomfortable,” Sayed said. “It might be manageable now, but in a year it might not be.”