Mission Statement: S3 Housing Connect seeks to bring together the needed resources in Sanford and Lee County to create a coordinated and comprehensive approach and to ensure that homelessness is prevented whenever possible, or is otherwise a rare, brief and non-recurring experience.
The need for this project was identified after 22 homeless people were found to be living in a uninhabitable building and had to be relocated after the building was deemed condemned. This situation proved to Sanford that resources for the homeless needed to be located and brought to light immediately. The creation of this Task Force is a grass roots effort initiated by Sanford’s Mayor, Chet Mann, and City Council members Byron Buckels and Charles Taylor. The intent of this initiative is to identify all existing resources in our community and bring those resources together to create a coordinated and comprehensive approach to end homelessness in our community. With this goal in mind, the three City officials reached out to staff to brainstorm about how to get such a task force started. This also included reaching out to partner with Lee County and the addition of Commissioner Cameron Sharpe to this “planning committee”.
Early on, the planning committee realized that none of us were experts on the issue of homelessness and recognized the need to reach out to an agency or organization that could assist in forming our vision for this task force. Enter Mr. Terry Allebaugh from the NC Coalition to End Homelessness. City staff had reached out to State agencies for guidance and through this process we found Mr. Allebaugh and his 30+ years of hands-on experience in dealing with the issues of homelessness. Terry provided the foundation and primary guidance for the task force and staff as we began the project. Stan Holt with Partners for Impact is our current consultant, and is helping the task force explore new projects and ideas.
After laying the groundwork for the homelessness task force, the group began the process of recruiting volunteers to serve. We received almost 30 responses. Some were chosen to serve on the task force, while others were asked to serve on a subcommittee. The idea was to create a task force that would include a good cross-section of representation in terms of local agencies and citizens, while maintaining a reasonable limit in membership.
S3 Housing Connect’s first official task force meeting was June 29th, 2017. S3 has faced many challenges and overcome many obstacles, but the task force is still working tirelessly to accomplish its original goal- make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring in Sanford and Lee County.
S3 Accomplishments (1/28/2020) – In no particular order, here are some of S3’s proudest accomplishments.
- Outreach Mission, Inc. shelters became “low-barrier” and expanded services (Meaning there are very few barriers to entering OMI’s shelters)
- Bread of Life Ministries’ Extreme Weather Shelter- This emergency shelters opens when outside temperatures are too high or too low. BOLM has AC and heating capabilities
- Updated 211- 211 is now Lee County’s coordinated entry system, and help for the homeless is now only a call away- Dial 211, and a person in need will be connected to all local resources
- H3- Dr. Hall’s street medicine initiative
- Landlord engagement/conversations around affordable housing
- Multitudes of people assisted with finding shelter, housing or other resources
- Federal grant funding applications have been applied for. Various S3 nonprofits have received federal funding
- Community buy-in, education and collaboration
- A comprehensive resource directory for Lee County was made
- Point in Time Count data- Real-world data for homelessness in Lee County
- Nonprofit board development
- Local nonprofits are now connected in a service network
