Homeless women will no longer be left ‘out in the cold’ with Wake shelter expansion

The Helen Wright Center is doubling in size to serve more homeless women and moving out of downtown Raleigh.

Wake County leaders voted Monday to give Urban Ministries of Wake County nearly $2.4 million to double the number of beds at its women shelter to 73. The nonprofit plans to sell its current building at 401 W. Cabarrus St. to put toward a new shelter at 3603 Bastion Lane in Raleigh.

“Today, we right that wrong as it relates to single women, who are often less able to access social-welfare programs and services than women with children,” Commissioner Jessica Holmes said. “With this vote, and in partnership with Urban Ministries, we will almost double the number of beds available to single women — with the end goal of keeping women safer and facilitating their escape from homelessness more quickly.”

The property was purchased earlier this year and renovations will likely begin in 2019. If a buyer for the Cabarrus property is found before the new shelter is open, the agency will lease the space to continue its services uninterrupted, said Lisa Williams, director of crisis programs.

The money for the shelter expansion comes from the 1-cent property tax increase Wake County leaders approved this summer to generate about $15 million for affordable housing.

More than 800 single women in Wake County needed a place to stay at some point in 2016. Wake County saw an increase in its homeless population last year even though homelessness decreased overall in North Carolina.

A county study found that most of the women could be housed with about 80 beds. That need should be met with the 73 beds planned for the new Helen Wright Center and the 20 beds available at Healing Transitions, a nonprofit for people with alcohol and drug addiction.

Wake County already operates a 243-bed shelter for homeless men at the South Wilmington Street Center and had provided money to the Helen Wright Center, Raleigh Rescue Mission and Healing Transitions to help house women.

This money and Monday’s vote, Holmes and other commissioners said, will help bridge the inequity in the county’s services.

“The county is providing meaningful impact in the delivery of homeless services as it relates to men but has literally been leaving women with children and single women out in the cold and to the mercy of the nonprofit community, who has thankfully risen to the occasion,” Holmes said.

“Our vote will be a step in the right direction in addressing Wake County government’s inequity as it relates to services available to single men versus single women,” she said.

Commissioner John Burns called the inequity a “glaring omission.”

Urban Ministries of Wake County has made some emergency repairs but the building fills the entire lot along Cabarrus Street. It can’t expand at its current location and major renovations haven’t occurred since the shelter opened in the early 1980s.

The kitchen is also the center’s only classroom. The women who call the 36-bed shelter home sleep in common areas, some in bunk beds, and share a handful of showers and toilets.

Urban Ministries staff members are excited about the new center because of the extra space for residents and its proximity to nearby county services and bus routes, Williams said.

One woman at the shelter Monday said she wanted to see shelter expand because there weren’t enough programs for women who don’t have mental health or disability problems. The only thing available to single women was suffering, she said.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 8:30 PM.