Cumberland County officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the county’s new homeless shelter in February. Seven months later, there are still unanswered questions on how it will be designed and what services it will provide, and it’s not expected to open until 2027.
Here is an update:
What is the status of the project?
The Cumberland County Homeless Support Center is still in the design phase.
On Sept. 9, architects from the LS3P firm appeared with the county Board of Commissioners’ Committee to Address Homelessness to seek feedback from the public on how the project should be built. Commissioner Toni Stewart is the chairperson of the committee.
Stewart and the architects took comments on whether the shelter should have a single building or a campus layout, how many floors it should have, how sleeping and living areas should be — and should not be — arranged, and other amenities it might have.
The meeting drew about 70 people to Friendship Missionary Baptist Church on Campbell Avenue.
What is the next step?
The architects anticipate having plans drawn up in the first half of next year.
“We’re still right now in the very early stages of this process,” said Bob Pressley, the project’s manager for LS3P. He estimated it may take seven to eight months of design work before the project seeks its permits and construction starts.
Once the design is ready, County Commissioners’ Chairperson Glenn Adams told CityView, construction will probably take two years, meaning the building would be completed in 2027.
Where is the shelter to be built, and at what size and cost?
The shelter is to be built at 344 Hawley Lane, that is off Grove Street between B Street and North Cool Spring Street. This is next-door to the former Pauline Jones Elementary School — now the off-campus Fayetteville Technical Community College Education Center.
The county wants the shelter to be 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, and keep the cost around $15 million, Adams said.
What did people have to say about the design?
The comments, suggestions and answers to questions included:
- The shelter will be “low barrier,” Stewart said. “There will probably be people with records staying there. We’re not going to turn people away because they have a criminal background.”
- It needs to have laundry and shower facilities, spaces for people to have some quiet, and areas for children to play, she said.
- Fayetteville Tech will offer classes to residents to help them get job skills, certifications and degrees to move ahead in life, she said.
- Sleeping areas filled with barracks-style bunk beds are a bad idea, participants said. They preferred more comfortable private or communal living spaces.
- There were suggestions for transportation assistance for residents and clients, a chapel, facilities to store personal belongings, and accommodations for pets.
Who attended the meeting on Sept. 9 — were any of them homeless people?
It’s unclear how many — if any — people without homes attended the Sept. 9 feedback meeting. One man told the group he previously had been homeless in Asheville.
Stewart said she saw several people at the meeting who used to stay at a homeless shelter she managed, but they are no longer homeless.
“My plan is to still meet with our homeless community,” she told CityView. “I’ll go to where they are. The one thing that we can’t do is exclude their voice.”
In addition to the architects, Adams and Stewart, participants included County Commissioner Veronica B. Jones, staff members from the county government, representatives from nonprofit and governmental organizations that work with homeless people (including the City of Fayetteville and the homelessness coordinator for the Fayetteville Police Department), and people from local community activist organizations.
Also in the audience were Fayetteville City Council members Deno Hondros, Malik Davis and Mario Benavente, and Cumberland County commissioners candidate Kirk deViere.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to the CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
Another money pit that will fail!!!
I work at First Baptist Church on Anderson Street and very interested in helping the homeless (we call them our “downtown friends”. We give out snack packs with bottles of cold water and a snack.
I would like to know when there might be another “interest meeting”.