On Sunday night, just hours before the opening of the new Day Resource Center, homeless activists and other residents gathered for a “sleep out” to bring awareness to the plight faced by the city’s unhoused community.
The center, at 128 S. King St., opened Monday and provides showers, a kitchen, laundry facilities and rest space, but no overnight shelter — a point addressed by participants. By Monday afternoon, the lobby at the center was packed with people waiting to get help and resources. Staff members told CityView they had been busy throughout the day.
Sunday’s sleep out protest was organized by Joseph Wheeler and his activism group, Homeless Assembly. Its primary goal was to bring awareness to alleged shortcomings of Cumberland HealthNET — the organization tasked with operating the new center. Wheeler and others say it has provided inadequate services to the unhoused population it serves. About 20 people attended.
“The main thing is that we need resources that are not being provided,” Wheeler said Sunday. “We need them as soon as yesterday, because every time we go to them for resources, they run out of money. They miscommunicate intentions.”
The protest comes following Wheeler’s criticism of Shelley Hudson, executive director of Cumberland HealthNET, in comments he made at last week’s City Council meeting. Wheeler called for Hudson’s resignation.
Hudson, who was not present at the center Monday afternoon, told CityView in ana email that she will not be overseeing the day-to-day operations of the new Day Resource Center.
“CHN's board of directors selected me as the executive director based on my years of leadership and experience in serving underserved communities,” Hudson said. “Dr. Leanne Scalli, who recently relocated to this area, has been hired by CHN to manage the day-to-day operations of this center and has previous experience working in a Day Resource Center.
“Today was the opening of this important community resource for the unsheltered and we are very excited about what resources community partners will provide in this center.”
Wheeler and others at Sunday’s protest said the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry program and the organizations under its umbrella have done little to help residents who need permanent housing.
According to the Continuum's website, the Coordinated Entry program is “a process in which people who are experiencing a housing crisis are quickly assessed, referred and connected to local resources based on their agency strengths and the need of the individual in crisis.”
Unhoused people at the protest, though, said the program has not helped them in this way. Instead, Wheeler said, many in the homeless community were provided an outdated list of potential apartments and left to fend for themselves.
“Their system is that a person who is experiencing homelessness needs to go out and acquire an apartment,” Wheeler said. “(Unhoused people) need to then come back to (Cumberland HealthNET) after they have a lease and say, ‘Can you please pay for this for us?’ That is what their side is. … When you ask them for a resource, they give you a 14-year-old list dated March of '09, and (say) can you please use this resource to go find the apartment?”
Cheyanne Harris, who is nine months' pregnant and homeless, said the Coordinated Entry program did nothing to assist her or her husband with finding affordable housing. They went to one of the Coordinated Entry program locations twice to seek housing assistance; she says she was supposed to be contacted by a housing navigator afterward but never heard from him.
Harris has struggled to get even emergency housing resources from the organizations that would enable her to have temporary shelter, including hotel vouchers. She and her husband both work full time, but without help, they have sometimes been forced to sleep outside.
“And it just is not right,” Harris said, “because I'm nine months' pregnant. Nine months. And I'm out here when we have been going up to there and going all over the place to Coordinated Entry and asking them repeatedly (for help).
“We got (doors) slammed in the face by Coordinated Entry multiple times when we went up there,” she said.
The CoC did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Coordinated Entry program.
Harris said she ultimately relied on Communicare for assistance finding housing, and she and her husband had to call landlords themselves. They finally were able to secure an apartment that will be available Wednesday.
According to its website, Communicare “assists people in overcoming mental health problems, substance abuse disorders, PTSD and trauma of sexual victimization, grief, abandonment and abuse.”
For those looking for temporary housing, the Salvation Army of the Sandhills shelter has only 54 beds, according to Fayetteville’s latest quarterly report on homelessness. The Manna Dream Center has 20 beds, but it is for men only.
Justin Dawson, an unhoused man who was at the protest, said the resources he's found so far have left him in a “circle of failure.” He said shelter stays are limited to 90 days, and guests are required to meet stringent requirements that make it hard to pursue other life goals, like education, while staying there.
“The way things are now, it's like you got to jump through hoops to be able to stay in the shelter,” Dawson said.
Dawson also said a lack of funding — or at least a perceived one — is an issue across the board.
“When you go to one place to get resources, that place will tell you, ‘Oh, no, we don't have the funding you need to this place,’” he said. “Then when you go to that place for resources, they'll say, ‘No, we don't got the funding you need to go to this place. …’ It's like everybody's pointing a finger at each other.”
Dawson hopes that organizations would provide bus passes so it's easier for homeless people to get to job interviews and access resources. The only passes he has been able to get are day passes that are limited to one per month.
According to the Fayetteville Area System of Transit website, a monthly unlimited bus pass costs $40. There are discounts of 10% to 25% when passes are bought in bulk.
Nelson Montanaz, who is also homeless and attended the protest, said he’s been unable to find additional shelter after checking out of the Salvation Army shelter two weeks ago. Prior to that, Montanaz said, he resided at the Manna Dream Shelter.
Because he’s a convicted felon, Montanaz has been unable to get adequate work. He’s from Miami but moved to Fayetteville so he could be closer to his sister and, he says, “stay out of trouble.” But his sister has a family and is unable to help him.
As Montanaz spoke about wanting to change his circumstances, tears welled in his eyes. He said he loves to work.
“I didn't come from Miami to North Carolina to be homeless,” Montanaz said. “I came here to have a place, so this, being homeless, it's not me. I'm used to having a home.”
CityView reporter Char Morrison contributed to this report.
Evey Weisblat can be contacted at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com.
