Leaders at Winston-Salem’s Bethesda Center are ending the organization's involvement in federal housing programs.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development funded the program grants, and the city administered them, and the goal was moving people from homelessness into permanent housing.
Bethesda’s Executive Director Chris Leab says the move will allow the organization to save money on administrative costs not covered by the grants.
Those savings will go toward the center’s core mission of providing shelter and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness. Leab says he’s seen an increase in that population since the summer. And cuts to federal food programs have led to higher demand at a time when the organization has less food to give out.
He’s also seen more older people seeking Bethesda’s services.
“The people I'm seeing [in] their 60s, 70s and 80s," he says. "Because the utilities have gone through the roof, because housing has gone through the roof, they've gotten behind. They get evicted, and they don't have a support system. So they end up coming to stay with us.”
Leab says only a small percentage of Bethesda’s shelter users were enrolled in the federal grant programs.