community impact creates change
By combining advocacy with actionable support, the Greensboro City Council, Greensboro Housing Coalition, and North Carolina A&T students are implementing innovative, solution-based responses to homelessness, including the Doorway Project, Pallet Homes, and consistent meal services, to provide immediate relief and stability for unhoused residents.
In response to Greensboro’s growing homelessness crisis, community leaders, advocates, and students are joining forces to create lasting solutions. As the number of residents without stable housing continues to rise, Greensboro is being called to action. Through initiatives like the Doorway Project, Pallet Homes, and regular meal services, they are addressing both urgent needs and long-term housing stability. This united effort marks a shift from short-term fixes to community-driven, solution-based action.
What is happening with homelessness in Greensboro?
There has been a community-wide, initiated response to Greensboro’s growing homelessness crisis—one rooted in collaboration, innovation, and care. As housing insecurity rises across the city, local leaders, organizations, and students are taking action to meet both urgent needs and long-term challenges.
According to the Greensboro Housing Coalition, reports show that more residents are struggling to access stable, and affordable housing. Public services like libraries and schools are increasingly supporting individuals facing homelessness and mental health challenges.
What will the city do?
Students experiencing homelessness, for example, often face disrupted education, a concern underscored by UNC Greensboro’s National Center for Homeless Education. Rather than relying on outdated, punitive approaches, advocates in Greensboro are embracing housing-first and human-rights-based models.
This shift reflects a growing commitment across the city to not only provide shelter, but to restore stability and dignity to unhoused residents.
The doorway project
City councilman, hugh holston, speaks on solutions for the unhoused by working on "the door way project" which provides temporary housing in greensboro.
"We started off with 58 units and last year we expanded to 83 units," Hugh said. "Whereas working with the IRC, were able to get 83 people off the street and they got temporary housing from November to the end of March. The last two years we have done that successfully,"
"This year, starting April 1st, we moved them out to another site so atleast 58 of them would have housing during the summer months," Hugh said. "That is just one of the things we are doing to make a difference."
Holston also spearsheads the "Team project", which creates another solution project.
"For those who are in apartments and running the risk of being evicted, I have gotten $441,000 added to the budget for a third party partnership between UNCG and legal aid," Hugh said. "Its the tenant education advocacy mediation."
This project ensures citizens receive representation when dealing with cases of eviction.
The Greensboro Housing Coalition director of community engagement, Taira Brown, speaks on the GHC's role in pallet homes and advocacy as a solution.
"The Pallet homes are beneficial especially during the winter months or times of extreme weather," Brown says. "There needs to be a more permanent solutions for homelessness in a more wholistic way, not just provided a roof over their head but other resources, like helping them find jobs."
"A stronger focus of GHC needs to be on the advocacy/policy space, like related to rent control. If we focus on policies that affect our homeless, we would see a decrease in seeing people housing insecure," said Brown.
Tiara also seeks a future for more long term solutions which include flipping vacant properties, involving more churches, increasing parking locations, and day shelters.
Solutions by A&T student
Kyla Holten, a Senior Liberal Studies Pre-law student at North Carolina A&T and Student Government Attorney General, utilizes her time on campus to provide service to the unhoused. With one of her campus organizations, Mentoring For Her, Kyla provides warm cooked meals for those at The Hope Center.
Together, these efforts signal a turning point in how Greensboro addresses homelessness, by providing real change and action, brought by sustainable, community-driven solutions. The city is truly laying the groundwork for lasting change that supports all of its residents and expects more solutions in the future
Juliana Hilton is a Political Science and Journalism/Mass Communications student from Atlanta, GA.