Tent City in Charlotte

Is the Tent City in Charlotte on your mind? 

• What should you do? 
  • If you want to make a difference in our homeless situation and encourage those in the Tent City to seek housing and support and leave the Tent City:
    • Donate to Roof Above, Crisis Assistance, Salvation Army, Good Will, and all the other local Charlotte organizations that are working directly with the homeless.
    • We are doing this through our service project of donating bottled water and canned/bottles drinks to Roof Above.
      Bring your bottled or canned nonalcoholic drinks to the front porch of Jim and Gloria’s front porch, 427 West Pine St., from now until (EXTENDED) Monday evening, January 25th. We will deliver the drinks next week. 
• What should you not do?
  • Do not visit the Tent City. Do not bring water, food, supplies, clothes to the Tent City. This encourages them to not seek housing. They will stay in the Tent City as long as their needs are being brought directly to them. Right now there is actually an excess of food and supplies littering the area.

(Answers are from Captain Brad Koch, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police, and Liz Clasen-Kelly- CEO of Roof Above (formerly the Men’s Shelter, and the Charlotte Urban Ministry Center.)

Here are notes from recent webinars and Town Hall Events with by Liz Clasen-Kelly.

Roof Above is the merging of the Men’s Shelter and the Charlotte Urban Ministry Center.  Roof Above works daily with other local nonprofits to address the challenges and solutions to homelessness.

“During the pandemic, we have seen encampments become much larger and much more visible,” said Liz Clasen-Kelly, the CEO of Roof Above. “This visibility has forced the community to grapple with the reality of our housing and homelessness crisis.”

Clasen-Kelly explained that multiple factors, such as the disruption of in-person schooling, have increased the strain on families, which leads to more families and community members seeking assistance. The amount of individuals who are now homeless has forced local entities to find more housing options.

“Housing is the solution to homelessness,” Clasen-Kelly added. “Nonprofits and government partners have responded by significantly increasing shelter beds and doing so in socially distanced ways, like in motels.”

In December, Roof Above acquired an old hotel at the intersection of Clanton Road and Interstate 77 that serves as an emergency shelter for women and children. The hotel acts as Roof Above’s ninth campus, and will eventually become permanent housing in the future.

Questions:

Should I give money to panhandlers?
Answer: Panhandlers are typically not your chronic homeless person. The majority of panhandlers are people with addictions. We encourage you not to give money to panhandlers, but to donate to the many organizations that have a better solution to help them.

Why don’t we have more housing for the homeless?
Answer: We have 200+ more beds available than last year. The people in the Tent City are not interested in finding indoor housing. Over half of the people in the Tent City have addiction issues, and those with addiction issues are not interested in the regular housing options.  Our current housing is only 70% full. We have room for those in the Tent City.

Why don’t the people in the Tent City go to the housing that’s available?
Answer: As long as people bring them food, water, clothing and other supplies, it’s easier for them to say outside, then to use the housing options.

How much truth is there to the rumors that we hear that other cities are busing their homeless to Charlotte?
I have attended conferences all over the United States (in years past- not during the Pandemic) and cities all over the United States believe that others are sending their homeless to them. There is no evidence that we can find that any organization from another city is actively sending us their homeless.

Side note: our weather in North Carolina is very seasonably warm for the winter, and that will naturally attract people to the area.

What can I do to help? 
Answer: Go to the websites of Roof Above, Urban Ministries (we still have 3 websites up), Men’s Shelter, along with the other nonprofits working on the homeslessness issues such as Salvation Army, Crisis Assistance, Charlotte Community Health Clinic, GoodWill and others. Read the wishlists from their websites and donate directly to these organizations. Do not visit or give to the Tent City.

Note from the Fourth Ward CLT editor of this blog. If you listened to any of the recent webinars or Town Halls and want to add some more facts or quotes to this blog post from those recent webinars and/or Town Hal meetings- please email: communications@fofw.org