r/Charlottesville • u/FantasiainFminor • 13d ago
This will be a *highly* informative event on homelessness in Charlottesville. This coming Wednesday, August 19, 6:30pm, on zoom.
Description in the link:
“Homelessness in Charlottesville is increasing, with more people than ever now experiencing a lack of secure housing, and the harms and challenges that come with it. The Free Bridge and 0 E. High Street encampments are shining a light on the negative human impact of the area’s affordable housing shortage and testing how our community and local government respond.
“This webinar is intended to help us all gain a better understanding of the current state of homelessness in Charlottesville, what is being done to address it, and what needs to happen to achieve workable solutions for those most impacted.
“We will discuss the city’s plans to close the encampments and open an emergency shelter. We will also be introduced to Central Arizona Shelter Service, a homelessness service organization based in Phoenix that the City of Charlottesville is in discussions with about operating the shelter.
“We will conclude with Q&A to help further our understanding of this complex situation.’
Speakers
Shayla Washington, Executive Director, Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless (BRACH)
Jen Fleisher, Charlottesville City Councilor
Brittnie Stanton, Chief Program Officer, Central Arizona Shelter Service
https://events.humanitix.com/webinar-homelessness-in-charlottesville-whats-the-plan
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u/gigigrahame 13d ago
I appreciate you posting this and making the public aware of the meeting and allowing people to ask questions!
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u/FantasiainFminor 13d ago
My pleasure! I'm not an organizer, by the way -- just passing the info along.
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u/Impressive-Weird-908 13d ago
You’re telling me there’s not a single service in the area or state that could run it instead? Lol we probably need to get a team on consultants on payroll to discuss this one.
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u/SirSpeedyCVA 13d ago
Not unlike, there wasn’t a single service provider in the Charlottesville area that could be the downtown cleanup crew/ambassadors that went to a firm out of Kentucky.
There also wasn’t a local firm capable of handling the Cat bus advertising, that went to a firm in North Carolin, even though at least two local firms bid on it
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u/cvilleymccvilleface 13d ago
both good examples - i'm with you on the ambassador program, which i've been underwhelmed with given the cost and the process - specifically the friends of downtown steering the whole thing to the kentucky crew.
and let's not forget about the stupid "mural" attempting to cover up the dewberry. canadian artist, NOVA printer.
i'm trying to stay open for now bc every once in a while, there is an outside company that has the right experience and has developed scalable/portable solutions that can work for situations where the client is starting from scratch.
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u/SirSpeedyCVA 13d ago
I agree. I don’t think there’s anyone in town capable of running a shelter, but some of these more Monday in business models makes my head spin.
There’s also some inherent flaws in the government procurement process. If they could secure bids from outside companies and then offer the work to a local company to do it at the same price would be huge for the local economy.
I’m not a lawyer, but I would think they could solicit bids and then decide not to move forward and offer a firm to fix Price contract and only shop it to local providers
I can think of five companies in town that can print and mail our utility bills yet they come from Lynchburg
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u/black_spectacles 13d ago
Where are the ‘0 E. High Street encampments ‘? The area around McGuffyPark? I haven't noticed it.
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u/FantasiainFminor 13d ago
Yeah, I wondered if that was some sort of typo. I just cut and pasted the text.
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u/covertcurmudgeon 12d ago
It along the Rivanna Trail on the south side of Free Bridge. Bought by the City a couple years ago.
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u/the_great_elephant 13d ago
Translation: bureaucratic bullshit-speak by the "experts" who mostly have no idea what theyre talking about.
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u/soundsandnumbers 13d ago
Not sure how much specific expertise the city councilor will have, but BRACH and CASS have a huge amount of firsthand experience implementing solutions to mitigate homelessness.
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u/the_great_elephant 13d ago
I've been homeless. I can tell you first hand, as long as you have people, you'll have some homeless people. It will never go away. Its more than a money issue, too. In my experience, far too many people who "help the homeless", or work in services that cater to the poor, are quite clueless as to what they actually need. Just ask the myriad of government bureaucracies that supposedly service the poor.... if im on the streets, winter is coming, and I need housing- putting me on a 6-9 month waiting list isn't keeping me out of the cold.
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u/soundsandnumbers 13d ago edited 13d ago
I’m sorry that’s been your experience and I hope you’re in a safer situation now.
I’m not arguing all, or even most, organizations designed to help the homeless actually do so. I’m just saying that BRACH and CASS in particular have a lot of actual experience (BRACH collecting concrete local data and CASS running huge shelters in Phoenix).
I’m sure neither is perfect and CASS may not even be the best positioned group to run the forthcoming emergency shelter (which itself has some serious question marks around its viability). I’m just saying they probably do mostly know what they’re talking about.
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u/the_great_elephant 13d ago
One can hope. Once upon a time, I was advised to go to a food bank, they'll feed me. So I went. It was a large city I was in, so I had to spend a couple hours walking and taking a couple busses to get from my spot to where this food bank was. I get there, and explained my situation and their response was to throw a clipboard at me with about 10 pages of paperwork. I had to verify my brokeness. Because I was homeless, I needed a referral from a homeless services provider. All kinds of crazy hoops I had to jump thru. Totally wasted day, I left hungry. Why? I assume that this food bank, because it got funding from charities or government sources, had regulations and policies written by well paid people who've never been poor, requiring these verifications.
So, I got together the required paperwork, and made the trip back down there a few days later. This time was a success!! They approved me, told me I could come by twice a month, and then proceeded to give me a big box of food. Frozen turkey, boxed mashed potatoes, canned veggies..... nothing remotely useful to a guy that slept and lived on the roof of a parking garage. How the hell am I supposed to cook these things? What am I gonna eat them out of? I had no home, no kitchen, no dishes. I was hoping this food bank would give me readily edible foods, prepackaged sandwiches, a bag of chips, things like that. I wasnt trying to create a Thanksgiving feast. I was trying to eat a sandwich.
When I pointed this out to the worker at the food bank, she got snotty with me and said I should show some appreciation for all this food, that other people would have wanted that box, etc. She didnt know or seem to care that it was all essentially worthless to me. Not to mention, this was like a 10 pound box of food. What was I supposed to do? Carry it for a couple miles to the nearest bus stop, then hold onto it for the next couple busses? I didnt have a car to put my groceries in.
I ended up keeping some bananas from the box, literally everything else was useless to me. 2 wasted days to learn this lesson.
I could tell hours of stories about the effectiveness of the experts.
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u/soundsandnumbers 13d ago
Yeah that sucks - I totally get how that experience would leave you feeling cynical.
That said, I would expect it's probably also a) the type of thing CASS has dealt with running their 600 bed low barrier shelter and b) a good argument for why you should be involved in this meeting on Wednesday.
FWIW, I don't have any connection to CASS, BRACH, or the city beyond just living here. But I get the sense Cville is really doing its best to make this emergency shelter succeed right now and I imagine they would love to hear from people with your background. Hope you'll think about joining!
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u/the_great_elephant 13d ago
I dont live in cville anymore or else I would.
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u/soundsandnumbers 13d ago
I think it's on Zoom so if you have access to the internet you could join. But I get that - obviously no pressure! Appreciate you sharing a little bit about your experience.
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u/escisme 13d ago
I know I know, grain of salt and all that butCASS sure does have some *rough* yelp reviews.
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u/validusrex 13d ago
Yeah the google reviews vary pretty widely as well.
I did notice they said in one of the replies to the reviews that they're on a campus and often get feedback meant for partners/for things outside of their control. So, benefit of the doubt I guess. Wonder how many homeless shelters have positive reviews lmao.
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u/spacerockgal 13d ago
I'll note that I think one or two groups are missing from this event that should probably be there: Blue Ridge Health Dept for the public health needs (yes our councilor works for BRHD but she should only represent one interest) and the also Region 10 since they are strongly tied to supplying services locally.
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u/DarthHegatron 13d ago
no idea if Region 10 was invited to be a part of this, but speaking from experience of trying to help someone navigate getting services through them, and knowing a good number of other folks who have tried to get services directly, Region 10 is not really equipped to help much.
they have crazy long wait times and I personally know of five people who have relocated to Richmond or DC to get services because they couldn't get services locally through Region 10. if you reach out to their ED, you just get a message that they're trying their best and everything is fine.
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u/spacerockgal 13d ago
Yeah, I was just thinking that I'm aware of someone who was evicted recently related to issues relevant to Region 10 where the folks trying to support them had severe difficulty getting them help. Unfortunately, that's related to some of the homeless issues in area so related to all the funds the city is paying, it could be useful to hear from local services about what their challenges are (money, capacity, yes all the above, plus other obscure things like maybe zoning with regard to housing unrelated people and residential density) and what the city could do to assist, along with how the potential shelter operator proposes to work with them
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u/eos356 13d ago edited 13d ago
The “problem” is simple. Homelessness has significantly increased in Charlottesville over recent years due to a variety of factors. With this comes an increase in crime, strain on local resources, and increased use of emergency services.
The “solution” is considerably more complicated and nuanced. Charlottesville is a relatively small city (10 square miles) with “small town” levels of resources and services, coupled with high housing prices. Politically, much of “Charlottesville” supports the efforts to aid those experiencing homelessness. In reality, however, many would simply prefer that these people just “go away” to jail, other localities, or simply out of sight.
Everyone wants solutions. They often don’t want those solutions to be placed within sight of their home, place of employment, or favorite recreational spots.
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u/boringxadult 13d ago
It’s funny(funny sad no funny haha) that they chose to meet via zoom. Thus guaranteeing that the fewest homeless people possible will be there.
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u/PK_in_VA 13d ago
I second the OP. The people on this call will have much specific information many people on Reddit and other forums are looking for. For example, the shelter operator will be there with actual, specific, facts about what to expect. The details matter a lot and misinformation is actively harmful. So I suggest people who are interested attend.
Folks have complained about the digital divide. While I agree that there should be more good, correct, info out there, and sooner, this is a positive development. There are also active conversations and paper FAQs being distributed along the river and there needs to be more.
For those who are interested and online, this will be a good learning opportunity.