Day Resource Center operator acknowledges challenges since homeless support center opening

At the Fayetteville City Council meeting Monday, council members heard a report about operations at the Day Resource Center (DRC), the city’s homeless support center downtown that provides meals, showers and laundry services to people experiencing homelessness. 

With four months remaining in Cumberland HealthNET’s contract to operate the Day Resource Center for Fayetteville, Shelley Hudson, executive director of Cumberland HealthNET, provided the council with a report on DRC operations over the first five months since the center’s Aug. 21 opening. 

Hudson said the DRC had provided services to 991 individuals and 16,715 meals have been served by Manna Church. The laundry and shower services had also been used thousands of times during the five months since the center’s opening. 

In recent months, the DRC has been criticized by some advocates and unhoused people for not providing the support services city officials previously advertised would be available there, particularly resources connecting members of the homeless community with nonprofits that provide assistance in finding permanent shelter, employment or medical care. 

Hudson said Monday that Cumberland HealthNET’s contract with the city did not include connecting DRC visitors with partner agencies that provide homeless support services as a responsibility, but that the organization had signed a non-binding agreement with 14 partner agencies to offer consistent services at the center. 

Hudson acknowledged there had been unforeseen challenges her organization encountered while running the center, including several maintenance issues. For example, Hudson said four showers have been running at 50% capacity since September because of high usage, and the electronic charging station has been out of order since November. 

“One of the biggest challenges is the building itself,” Hudson said. “I don't think that we anticipated nor the city anticipated the number of people that would be coming through that building.”

Hudson also said the organization had grappled with an unexpected financial cost of operations, including the labor costs of staffing the center with three full-time employees and, Hudson said, the costs of her own salary. She also said she believed challenges had arisen because of a lack of community awareness of what DRC is, with some people mistakenly assuming it functioned as an overnight shelter. 

Cumberland HealthNET will not renew its contract with Fayetteville when it expires on June 30. Hudson said that decision was a result of internal conversations about Cumberland HealthNET’s identity following Medicaid expansion in North Carolina. The nonprofit's original intent and focus was providing uninsured residents with a medical care model. (The expansion of Medicaid is expected to reduce the number of uninsured patients in the state.) 

“With the advent of Medicaid expansion, that changes who Cumberland HealthNET is,” Hudson said. “And so we need to take the time to figure out who Cumberland HealthNET is with Medicaid expansion here.”

Hudson said Cumberland HealthNET remained committed to working with the center's new operator during the transitional period after its contract with the city ended. 

2024 State Action Plan

After the council passed its 2024 State Action Plan at a Feb. 26 meeting, council members spent part of Monday’s work session discussing the plan’s details. The plan lays out the city’s priorities for state funding and legislative opportunities to advocate for in the General Assembly. According to the staff presentation, key areas of focus in the plan include: 

• Economic development 
• Interstate connectivity, equitable tax distribution, workforce development, city corridor improvements, revision of bidding process
• Public safety 
• Police training center, mental health response, violence intervention, firefighter cancer prevention, law enforcement retirement
• Quality of life
• Affordable housing, telecommunication expansion, stormwater improvements, solid waste/transit facility, McArthur Road Sports Complex, Cape Fear River Park and Trail, homeless support 
• Transit 
• FAY route expansion, transit regionalization, passenger rail expansion

Strategic planning retreat debrief

The council debriefed its strategic planning session that took place in January. During that session, council members singled out five top priorities for fiscal year 2024-2025, beginning on July 1. Priorities, according to the presentation, included: 

• A more comprehensive response to 911 calls (e.g., Office of Community Safety)
• City commitment to revitalization and affordable housing 
• Enhanced parks and recreation opportunities 
• Return municipal assets to tax rolls by increasing taxable city property 
• Articulate and define the city’s identity and tell the story of Fayetteville 

Other goals the council identified at the retreat: 

• Provide more services to people experiencing homelessness 
• Create jobs, increase the tax base, focus on long-term plans for economic development conducive to city growth
• Create pedestrian improvements, expand Wi-Fi across Fayetteville, facilitate partnerships for entertainment attractions 
• Streamline the development process for housing 
• Expand transportation options to bolster the local economy
• Increase government and community communications

With the council’s strategic planning goals set, city staff said they would put together specific action plans and create benchmarks to actualize these strategic goals and priorities in the coming months. Staff said departmental and citywide budget allocations for the upcoming fiscal year will be informed by the action plans.

Here’s what else happened Monday: 

• Stormwater development ordinance: The council voted 7-3 for staff to remove a portion of the city’s stormwater ordinance, City Code Section 23-33(B), which deals with residential stormwater management systems. Council Members Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, Derrick Thompson and D.J. Haire voted against the measure. 

• The removal of this section of the ordinance eliminates the process for owners of single-family residential subdivisions to turn over stormwater control measures to the city. It followed the council’s passage of an ordinance amendment at its Feb. 26 meeting that aligned the city’s stormwater ordinance with newly changed state laws prohibiting city management of residential stormwater control measures. 
• Cool Spring Downtown District: Cool Spring Downtown District (CSDD), a nonprofit that receives funding from the city, county and the Arts Council to maintain an arts and entertainment district in downtown Fayetteville, gave a report on recent activities in the district.
• Between Oct. 31 and Dec. 31, 2023, five new businesses opened in the downtown district (The Salad Box, Harm’s Way Ink, Veteran’s Lending, Juniper and Fern, The Office), CSDD President & CEO Bianca Shoneman said.
• Shoneman said CSDD also hosted 35 events with over 45,000 people in attendance. CSDD also reported massive community engagement online, with more than 70,000 visitors to the nonprofit’s website this quarter, representing a 450% increase in web traffic. 
• Towing ordinance: At the request of Council Member Lynne Greene, the council voted to move forward with having staff draft a towing ordinance. The city does not have an ordinance to require signs in private property towing areas, Greene said, which is not in accordance with state law. Greene told CityView the measure was inspired in part by recent towings around the Haymount Truck Stop, a food truck court and bar located in historic Haymount. 
• Paid parking: For the second time since November, Council Member Deno Hondros suggested the council entertain the possibility of ending paid parking downtown at 5 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. on weekdays. Hondros proposed the discussion after gathering support for this change from CSDD and the Downtown Alliance. He put forward a motion for staff to research the financial impact of changing downtown parking times; the council voted unanimously in favor of the motion. 

Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608. 

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