New Bern Hotel Evictions Highlight Housing & Homeless Services Gaps
Call for Action
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RALEIGH, N.C.,
May 13, 2022—On May 10, 2022, WRAL released the news that the Quality Inn hotel on New Bern has been deemed unsafe by City of Raleigh building inspectors after 14 failed inspections since January 2022. As a result, hotel guests are now being forced to vacate, upending their lives, and leaving already marginalized families and singles at risk of homelessness.
The Raleigh Wake Partnership to End Homelessness has begun to receive phone calls at the Access Hub, a crisis hotline for people experiencing or at immediate risk of homelessness in Wake County. Inquiries are currently being handled as CoC policies and procedures require. However, the bottle neck of moving the 626 people (339 families) already in shelter or receiving Street Outreach service into permanent housing has resulted in a backlog of 475 outstanding referrals to shelter. “The aftermath of the pandemic, cost of living, and lack of housing stock has resulted in a huge waitlist for services in our community. Our heart breaks for the guests at the New Bern Avenue hotel as they likely will be at the end of a very long list of people that have also suffered notices to vacate,” states Kim Crawford, Executive Director of Raleigh Wake Partnership to End Homelessness.
An emergency meeting of the Wake County Continuum of Care’s Coordinated Access System Committee has been called for Friday, May 13, 2022, and invitations have been extended to other community leaders from the City of Raleigh, Wake County, nonprofit organizations, and faith communities to join the conversation. “This situation highlights the gaps in our community that prevents the rightsizing of the homeless response system to meet the needs of our neighbors. We need permanent housing solutions, prevention programs, and diversion funds to keep people in similar situations as our neighbors on New Bern from ever entering the system,” explains Crawford.
If you are experiencing homelessness or about to become homelessness, you can call the Access Hub at 919-443-0096 or complete the form at https://partnershipwake.org/access-hub/.
How you can help
There are many options for supporting the systems-change work necessary to right-size our homeless response system.
1. Become a Housing Provider Partner by renting your property through Wake County’s Landlord Engagement Unit. Signing up through the Lease 2 Home program could provide financial incentives!
2. Does your faith community or civic organization have flexible funds that could be used for diversion initiatives? Contact us at hello@partnershipwake.org or call 919-443-0098.
3. Become a System Sustainer by signing up as a recurring donor. Your financial support provides the capacity necessary to transform our homeless response system to adequately meet the critical needs of people experiencing homelessness in our community. Donate at https://partnershipwake.org/together/.
4. Want to stay informed or get involved? Sign up for the Partnership Newsletter at https://partnershipwake.org/sign-up-for-email/
About The Raleigh Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness
The Raleigh Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness (Partnership) leads a collaborative network of community partners focused on solutions to end and prevent homelessness in our community. The Partnership’s mission is to leverage the power of community to address systemic causes of homelessness through coordinated response, education, data, and advocacy, so every Wake County resident can have safe and affordable housing. To find out more about our work or to make a monetary investment in ending homelessness today, visit https://partnershipwake.org/donate.
About Wake County Continuum of Care (CoC)
The Raleigh Wake County CoC plans, develops, and implements comprehensive and coordinated strategies across funding sources and systems to address homelessness in Raleigh/Wake County. The CoC is governed by a board composed of community members invested in the issue of homelessness. The CoC Board is an independent entity, but is not incorporated, so must appoint a local entity to conduct business on behalf of the Board and CoC at large. The Raleigh Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness is appointed as the Lead Agency, Collaborative Applicant, HMIS Administrator, and Coordinated Access System Lead. To find out more about our work, visit https://wakecoc.org/.