Wilmington leaders ask county to restart homelessness, affordable housing commitments
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A year after the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County announced a joint plan to address homelessness, Wilmington leaders are now calling on the county to restart commitments.
In this year’s fiscal budget, the county cut $27,300 in funding to the Cape Fear Homeless Continuum of Care.
The agency provides a census of homeless populations annually and helps connect those in need to services in the area.
Wilmington makes up the largest local contribution to the continuum of care. Last year, the city contributed $73,116.
City Councilwoman Salette Andrews is calling on the county to reinstate its commitment.
“We can’t do it ourselves,” she said. “We can’t just wave a magic wand or even write a check and make this problem go away. We know what we need because we did that whole plan last year.”
Although county funding only accounts for a small fraction of the CoC’s total budget, Andrews notes the issue is about more than money.
“The other part is they’ve stopped participating in the Continuum of Care. So, they’ve stopped sending staff to the meetings,” she explained.
In a statement, a county spokesperson says the county had no plans to support the Continuum of Care after 2025, and that its initial funding was a part of a commitment that was made with the city in 2008.
That funding was set to last for ten years, winding down to zero by 2019, but county commissioners chose to extend the funding in 2015.
The statement adds the New Hanover Community Endowment provided a $200,000 grant to the agency.
The decision comes after commissioners also cut ties to a joint workforce housing committee with the city in July.
“Which left the city to say, well, we can’t, under the current rules, we can’t even hold a meeting because we don’t have a quorum,” Andrews noted.
At Wilmington City Council’s meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Bill Saffo said he’ll be writing a letter to county commissioners.
“And ask them to reengage with the city, with this community, so that we can all talk with one voice, because we’re going to need their resources, folks This is not going to be done alone,” he said.
Andrews and other council members signed that letter to the county, and it was sent to commissioners on Wednesday.
The full statement sent to WWAY from the county reads:
“The history of the County’s funding for the Continuum of Care goes back many years and evolved from a “10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness”. This is what our records reflect.
Under the leadership of the City of Wilmington, New Hanover County and the United Way, a ’10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness’ was launched in 2008. The County’s funding commitment to that plan was scheduled to ramp down during the last few years, with zero funding in FY19. Instead, in 2015, the County Manager stated that he would recommend funding to the Continuum of Care, as an extension of that plan, for the next 10 years at $25,000 per year – at the request of the Continuum of Care, this was increased beginning in FY23 to $27,300. That 10-year commitment ended in FY25. There was no agreement to fund beyond that, and while County funding was not renewed as part of the FY26 budget, we note that last month the Endowment announced a $200,000 grant to the Continuum of Care.”
