Homelessness nonprofit ‘surprised’ after Raleigh and Wake County pull funding
Raleigh and Wake County are pulling funding from a key nonprofit that works to end homelessness, putting in question who leads that work.
The Raleigh Wake Partnership to End Homelessness was notified Friday afternoon that the city and county “would move away from funding” the Partnership this year.
“As local government leadership, we are required to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” according to the letter to the Partnership.
“This includes monitoring our funded agencies and holding them to high standards, with clear, consistent metrics and outcomes,” the letter continued. “As funders, we do not find that the Partnership has consistently met the expectations outlined in previous contracts.”
The letter also notes “increasing concerns” about the Partnership’s leadership and “its diminished capacity” to meet expectations.
The news came as a shock to Kim Crawford, executive director of the Partnership.
“We believe we provide valuable services, input, guidance and leadership,” she told The News & Observer Tuesday. “So we are a little taken aback and surprised.”
What the Partnership does
The Partnership coordinates a network that works to prevent and end homelessness in the county.
Logistically, that means when someone is or is about to become homeless, they call a number or contact a nonprofit to enter the county’s coordinated access (sometimes called coordinated entry) pipeline. This access, managed by the Partnership, acts as a triage and helps connect people to the services, nonprofits and shelters they need.
That’s one of the primary objectives of the Partnership, as the lead agency for the Wake County Continuum of Care, or COC.
The Continuum of Care is made up of community and area organizations and is required to apply for grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is also supposed to ensure that federal requirements are met when a grant is received.
Unanswered calls and the hub “not making appropriate matches” were two of the grievances listed in the letter to the Partnership from the city and county.
“It’s not a knee jerk decision and it is something that really pains us because this (references) services that are being delivered to some of our most vulnerable in our community,” Wake County Deputy Manager Duane Holder said in an N&O interview. “And I think as is evidenced by multiple years of technical assistance, and consultation and coaching, we have really tried to make it work. It’s very unfortunate because we had hoped that the Partnership would be able to rise to the challenge.”
Big increase in calls
Crawford said the Partnership has experienced a 250% increase in calls since last year.
“At this time last year, we were taking about 2,000 calls a month,” she said. “We are currently taking 6,000 calls a month. So, yes ,,, people are holding longer. It is taking longer for people to get a return call.”
A majority of those calls are people seeking an update on their case.
“Once that referral goes to the appropriate organization, most specifically a homeless shelter, that organization will call you back.” Crawford said. “Sixty percent of the current fall call volume into the access hub are people calling back looking for a status on their referral. Because our shelters are not able to call back the referrals.”
Call data is given to the COC, which includes city and county staff, each month. And while there have been conversations about how to address the call volume, Crawford said it has never been brought to the Partnership as a “Partnership performance issue.”
There were 1,534 people experiencing homelessness in Wake County in 2022, according to a once a year count that local governments use to count people who are homeless. That’s a more than 68% increase over the 2021 number and nearly double the 2020 number.
The grievances listed in the letter are not an “indication of a failure of leadership or performance of the Partnership,” Crawford said.
“Those are indicative of the strain on our entire homeless crisis response system,” she said. “We are not the only ones to deal with with homelessness. Homelessness is not our fault. We are part of a wider community to address those issues. But system failures do not rest on the shoulders of one organization. They’re on all of us.”
‘Philosophical’ differences
While the county budgeted $355,000 for the Partnership, the two parties never entered into a formal contract over “philosophical” differences, Holder said.
The Partnership sees itself as a facilitator instead of the group doing the legwork, he said.
“We just had different understanding of the goals and outcomes in terms of the contract,” Crawford said. “And we did not believe that, based on the proposal that was provided by the county, that we would be able to meet our obligation by signing that contract.”
Nonprofits know better than to go after money “for the sake of going after money” if they can’t meet the requirements of the contract, she said.
The city had $184,500 allocated for the Partnership. The letter states funding would be provided to the nonprofit for work done from June through September of this year.
Both the city and the county said the money would still be spent on preventing and reducing homelessness, but neither a timeline nor an alternative organization has been identified.
“We’re still fully committed to dedicating all of that money to address homelessness in the community,” said Evan Raleigh, Raleigh assistant city manager. “I don’t think our intention with that money changes at all. The council has made it clear that it’s a priority. It’s a priority for our staff. It’s a priority for the county. We’re going to reinvest those dollars.”
The Wake COC met Monday for a regularly scheduled meeting without deciding whether to keep the Partnership as the lead agency or pick another entity.
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 2:52 PM.
