Housing is a Human Right

Understanding on Housing Insecurity and Supporting Our City’s Unhoused

There will be no quick fixes but there is an urgency to build affordable and mixed income housing, increase tenant protections, establish permanent supportive housing options (other than the Servant House) and acquire more data to create collaborative strategies and policies that promote fair housing and support economically diverse, inclusive neighborhoods. These platform positions on housing were informed by the work of local nonprofit coalitions and social justice organizations who focus on housing solutions in Guilford County.

Leading With Curiosity: Explore and Examine Further

How has our city really addressed the historic harms of redlining and urban renewal?

Other than the Point In Time (PIT) Count , which is mostly determine the quantity of visibly unsheltered people and some demographics (which reports confirm as well intentioned but inaccurate by nature) what are the trending needs and experiences of our local unhoused population? Underlying factors such as mental health, substance abuse, and financial instability must also be addressed. What data do we have? We need to remain curious and focused.

Stop Evictions and Prevent Homelessness

Continue to invest in TEAM Tenant - Keep Gate City Housed

For the past year, local organizers with American Friends Service Committee and Guilford for All have teamed up to lead a campaign focused on preventing homelessness and stopping evictions. Their goal is to raise awareness and secure funding from local city budgets to fully support programs that expand access to legal resources and rental assistance.As a volunteer supporter of the Keep Gate City Housed initiative.

Result: TEAM Tenant WON in 2024

The City of Greensboro allocated $440,000 city allocation to Tenant Education Advocacy and Mediation (TEAM) program

2025 and beyond

Continue to Stop Evictions and Prevent Homelessness

Continue to follow up and advance budget allocations to programs (like legal aid and TEAM Program, eviction prevention and rental assistance)

Work to eliminate concentrations of poverty
Advocate and work with state representatives to support code compliance legislation and landlord accountability
Create a Tenant Task Force

Guilford County needs 32,000 new units in 5 years.

Interview with Sue Schwartz, Director of Planning for the City of Greensboro

excerpt from 35,000 new housing units in five years: Here's how Greensboro can get it done…

WFMY News2

Create More Affordable Housing

To support the City of Greensboro’s growth and needs we can localize and adopt recommendations of the Carolina Forward: Fair and Affordable Housing Report

Change Zoning Policy to Accommodate Affordable Housing

At the city level, it would translate into more high-density, multi-purpose housing. In policy terms, this would mean changing zoning and construction laws to allow

Allow granny pods or additional buildings on currently-zoned single-family home lots
Allow for high-density housing (townhomes, condos, apt. buildings) in areas currently restricted to single-family homes;
Eliminate minimum lot sizes for home construction
Eliminate the parking space requirement for new construction of apartment buildings
Expand multi-purpose zoning (apartments above businesses).

Unhoused people are our neighbors

Homelessness is complex

Issue and evidence-based policy recommendations for reducing homelessness require root cause approaches, including reforming housing plans, scaling alternative crisis response models, stopping the jail-to-homelessness cycle, and taking a regional, data-driven approach to homelessness.

Invest in people, not punishment

It's time to end the criminalization of homelessness and invest in people, not punishment. Everyone deserves a home and the chance to rebuild their life. A 2023 study by the American Medical Association found that actions like encampment sweeps, move-along orders, and the criminalization of homelessness "displace unhoused individuals, exacerbate their trauma and distress, and result in higher rates of hospitalizations, overdoses, and deaths."

Share Data Across Systems. Build Coalition. Get Proximate to the Problem.

Support the priorities of The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro (CFGG) Unhoused Working Group, a comprehensive collaborative to address both immediate needs and long-term solutions for Greensboro’s unhoused population.

The Unhoused Working Group identified several key priorities for immediate action:

Implementat winter emergency shelter plans, including support for the City’s Doorways Pallet House program and begin planning for the future
Engage with faith communities to expand shelter facilities
Assess existing facilities and identification of gaps in current services
Work with Guilford County to develop a strategic plan around the eco-system of the unhoused population. As part of this process, establish coordinated case management and data tracking systems.
Enhance service provider training and community education
Explore sustainable funding models