GREENSBORO, N.C. — The city of Greensboro is taking an innovative step to help address homelessness. It’s the first city in the state to create a temporary shelter community.

What You Need To Know

  • The Doorway Program houses more than 50 people experiencing homelessness

  • The program gives those who are homeless a safe and warm place to sleep this winter and to receive case management services

  • The program will last four months

Pedro Rosa works for the Interactive Resource Center, the partnering agency with the city for this program, and they're preparing for the first round of people to come in for the Doorway Program. They will provide temporary housing set up inside 30 pallet homes built at Pomona Park.

“I just don't see any other places during the winter, considering all the shelters are full," Rosa said. "This plays an important role in housing homeless people for the winter."

The City Council approved $193,000 for the program to happen again.

It's the second year for the four-month program to help the homeless get off the street and receive case management services to help them get a head start and back on their feet in a safe and warm place.

“When you know, you have 56, 57 people housed for the winter, these people aren't going to freeze out there, you know? These people aren’t going to get hurt. And it just gives them that opportunity to, you know, set up some short-term goals and who knows? They can accomplish this is in four months,” Rosa said.

Rosa is the team lead for the program. He’s been working in social services for 17 years, and a program like this is the first he’s ever seen.

“It means a lot to me because it's a lifeline, right, for these clients that are homeless. You know, a lot of them haven't had a stable place to live in. This gives them some stability,” he said.

Just this year Rosa says he has seen more new faces and would like to see the program grow into more spaces.

“It should be expanded to a bigger location and should have more pallets, and that's because there's a lot of people during the winter that need these pallets,” he said.

The Interactive Resource Center will be gradually moving people day by day into the temporary shelter community. 

“Vital that we have temporary programs like this to help keep people safe, during the ... coldest months of the year. But in addition to that, because of that influx, we need a place to keep people safe. And so this allows us that ability to do that without overburdening the system for our shelters and for other agencies,” Liz Alverson, Greensboro's supportive housing analyst, said. 

According to the IRC and the city, there is an influx of people moving into the area.

Alverson says there are two reasons for the influx — one is that the city is seen as a hub for resources. 

“We have a lot of services that provide food, a lot of emergency shelter, transitional housing. We have programs like this that are unique to the area. And so I think that the city of Greensboro is doing some really innovative things to help address homelessness,” she said.

The second reason is the area's economic growth.

“Because of the economic boom of all of the jobs that are going to be brought to our community, a lot more people are moving here as well to hopefully take advantage of those jobs. And so due to those reasons, we're seeing an increase in folks who are either low income or no income,” Alverson said.

She says people are also still experiencing the negative affects of COVID. 

“We have quite a bit of emergency shelters here, but accompanied with that is obviously the idea that we have more housing, and certainly we do. But due to the rising rent increases and the cost of living, a lot of folks get here and they can't afford the rental amounts,” Alverson said.