Guilford County is exploring a new funding model to better address homelessness.
Officials are considering a mutual aid fund structure that will pool public and private dollars from municipalities into one bucket. The money will support priorities like shelters, permanent supportive housing and street outreach.
The funds would also support a more robust Guilford County Continuum of Care (COC). But several Greensboro City Council members offered pushback at a work session on Thursday due to a concern that cities wouldn’t be contributing equitably.
Councilmember Tammi Thurm said Greensboro has already had to step up to fill in the gaps by itself.
“Until we can build some confidence in our COC that has been dysfunctional for so long, some of these questions and some of these agreements are just hard to commit to,” she said.
According to a presentation, Greensboro allocated around $2 million for homeless-related services in its current budget. For comparison, Guilford County and High Point set aside around $1 million and $250,000, respectively.