Featured photo: The Pallet community in Greensboro (photo by Gale Melcher)
Editor’s note: TCB takes anonymity for sources seriously and only grants the right to those we believe could be harmed through being named. In this story, TCB grants anonymity to three residents who have lived at the Pallet community who feared that being named could result in retaliation when securing future resources and housing.
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On Friday, residents of Greensboro’s Pallet shelter community for the unhoused started getting “eviction notices.” Some of them only have three days to pack up their things and leave.
And that’s because, according to city officials, the Pallet village will be completely dismantled by the end of the month, starting with the first wave on March 14.
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“We basically got the eviction notice today,” said one resident who TCB talked with on Friday.
His friend, who stood next to him in the dugout at the park where the Pallet shelters are installed, said that his section is set to come down on March 16. Both men spoke to TCB on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
When asked where they would go afterwards, both men said they don’t have any permanent housing lined up.
“I’ll probably go under the bridge where I was before I came,” he said.
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His friend agreed and said that he too, would probably go back to living near the bridge on Spring Garden Street where it enters downtown. As he describes his former setup, he mentioned how it’s tucked away from the street and keeps him safe.
“I should move in with you,” his friend said.
“You should man,” he said.
The temporary shelters, which cost approximately $500,000, were purchased by the city in October 2022 to shield people experiencing homelessness from the elements during the winter. Thirty shelters were installed in January and have operated for a little more than two months.
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The initiative, dubbed the Doorway Project, is operated by the Interactive Resource Center, a center downtown for the unsheltered that is open Monday through Friday.
Since its inception, the Pallet community was meant to be temporary.
During a special meeting of the city council held on Oct. 10, Michelle Kennedy, former executive director of the IRC and current head of neighborhood development for the city said that the shelters would be in place “roughly the next 8-9 months as [the city] finalized permanent supportive housing.” In reality, the shelters were only up for a few months and some residents are being forced back onto the street.
“They only gave us three days’ notice,” said the resident.
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According to Kristina Singleton, executive director of the IRC, all of the units are to be taken down by March 30 because the baseball field where the shelters are set up will be used in the spring for city programs.
During an Oct. 10 meeting, Assistant City Manager Nasha McCray posited that these programs would act as a stepping stone for participants to get off the streets and make it into permanent affordable housing.
“The goal of this is to help to transition those individuals into more permanent housing options during these months,” McCray said. “As individuals transition out, other individuals will be able to fill empty bed space.”
The first resident moved in on Dec. 23 and upon TCB’s first visit to the community in mid-January, 32 residents were living in the community. Recently, the number has risen to 55, according to Singleton.
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During a March 7 city council meeting, Kennedy informed the council on some data points regarding the Doorway Project.
“Fifty-eight individuals can be housed there, and they’ve averaged roughly 53 per night,” Kennedy said. “And most of that has to do with folks transitioning either in or out.”
During this meeting councilmember Zack Matheny raised concerns about transparency and communication.
“I’ve heard mixed things about the Pallet homes, but no real data…,” Matheny said. “Like a monthly number. How many units are occupied, how many beds are occupied?”
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Matheny also asked where the people who are currently living in the shelters would go after they are packed up this month.
A lack of transparency from the city
In an interview with TCB, Singleton said that while the Doorway Project’s main purpose was to provide shelter for participants through the winter season, it is not lost on them that it is an “opportunity to create better outcomes” for the people they serve. Singleton added that the IRC will continue to focus on getting as many people housed as they can between now and the end of March.
However, how many residents have secured permanent housing is unclear.
One of the residents whom TCB spoke with on Friday said that they had a case manager through the IRC but that they were never able to connect with her because she didn’t come when he was around.
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“People never get to see their case managers,” one of the residents said.
On multiple occasions, TCB has reached out to both Singleton and Kennedy to ask questions about the process through which the residents can secure housing and how many of the residents have secured permanent housing. TCB has not received a response concerning those questions thus far.
In a text message, Singleton did note that a total of 18 people have exited the program “for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to obtaining permanent housing, moving out of the area, family reunification, and inability to follow the agreed guidelines.”
According to interviews from February with residents, some of those living in the shelters were removed from the community because they were not following the program’s rules.
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“The rules are: You’re not allowed to come here and drink… they don’t want any arguing,” one resident told TCB.
“The Doorway program participant agreement does require that no alcohol or illegal substance can be used or consumed on property and that creating an unsafe environment for other Doorway participants will result in an exit from the program,” Singleton explained.
In a text to Singleton, TCB requested that she specify how many of the 18 residents had been removed from the program due to an “inability to follow the agreed guidelines.” TCB did not receive a response.
Pushback and criticisms
Since the Pallet homes were installed in December, they have been met with a mix of support and criticism. While some residents said that they were happy to have a roof over their heads, community members who advocate on behalf of the homeless community said that the program was an ill-advised, temporary fix.
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In a previous article by TCB, Del Stone with the Working-Class and Houseless Organizing Alliance in Greensboro called the shelters “a very, very small Band-Aid on a massive problem.” “We need housing to be actually invested in,” Stone said.
As reported by TCB, many of the amenities promised in the initial proposal for the Pallet community did not come to fruition until much later, or at all. When TCB reported on the community in mid-January, bathrooms and showers had not yet been installed. They have since been put up, but food is not available onsite.
According to one of the residents TCB spoke with on Friday, a community member brought home-cooked food to the shelters but one of the IRC staff onsite threw the food away. When asked why they did that, the staff member said it was because of “city rules.”
“How is that against city rules when they feed people downtown and in the parks?” asked one of the men.
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Additionally, the residents said that they are given four bus passes to use every day to get food from other parts of town, but that only translates to two meals a day because each pass is good for one trip.
“We’re basically missing one meal per day,” said one of the residents. “I get more respect in prison.”
His friend concurred.
“I’ve been to jail before,” he said. “It’s not as bad as that, but it’s close.”
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Unlike the Pallet shelters, the pilot program for the Safe Parking Initiative, also managed by the IRC, is slated to run for a full year. The initiative allows for people to park their cars in a secure lot to sleep. Once baseball season starts in the next few weeks, the city will have to find a new place for the Safe Parking Initiative. Singleton did not specify a timeline or a new location, noting that “the city will work with us on a different location.”
Asked on Friday about how they feel about the Pallet shelters as a whole, the residents gave mixed reviews.
One resident said that they were still thankful to be out of the cold and rain but that other homeless initiatives like the Regency Inn are a lot better.
“I came in here knowing that it was going to be a weird situation,” he said. “It’s something that no one has experienced before so I came in open minded. But a lot of the issue here is psychological. You wake up everyday and look out and see depression. It’s a constant reminder that you’re homeless.”
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