Event Recap: Supportive Housing Communities Volunteer Event

What we did: For our February event, 27 CLT Engage members volunteered with Supportive Housing Communities (SHC) at McCreesh Place, which opened in 2003 and is Charlotte’s first permanent supportive housing complex. McCreesh Place has 64 single-room occupancy units with communal bathrooms and kitchens and 26 one-bedroom units to house the chronically homeless in active recovery from addiction.

We cleaned the building’s seven communal kitchens and prepared lunch for all the residents. We then played bingo with everyone and gave away prizes like paper towels, dish soap, laundry baskets, and more.

How it fits into our mission: We use our events to learn about challenges facing the greater Charlotte area and how local government and civil society works to fill the gaps. In an overview of SHC, volunteer coordinator Leslie helped us understand how Mecklenburg County serves as an intake for people facing homelessness and how people are routed towards the organizations best prepared to help them. SHC is one of several organizations with case managers who work with residents over the long term to find them permanent supportive housing. According to SHC, “Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), a best practice model, is a cost-effective, evidence-based solution to the problem of chronic homelessness. Specifically, individuals who enrolled in a PSH were less likely to return to homelessness within two years, compared to exits to permanent housing from other programs such as street outreach or emergency shelters. All residents at McCreesh Place fall between low-to-moderate income or have no income at all and heavily rely on social services.”

We often try to understand the nuances between what Mecklenburg County works on, what the City of Charlotte works on, and what non-profits such as SHC do in conjunction.