COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia leaders are seeking feedback from organizations, businesses, and community members as they address the growing homelessness problem across the city.
“We’ve had a lot of individuals who come into our facilities, most of the time it’s overnight shelters,” said Marlo Brayboy, interim executive director at Oliver Gospel Mission.
Brayboy noted that the number of homeless people seeking services has increased over the past few years, with 895 individuals served last year alone.
"Our transitional housing on that side of the house, we saw roughly about 100 individuals with that, and so those individuals have been the ones who have come into the transitional piece trying to find a job and/or housing," Brayboy said.
Mayor Daniel Rickenmann has been hosting public input forums with organizations like Oliver Gospel Mission to gather input on a proposed centralized service center.
“We’ve had a real increase in homelessness, increasing rapidly in the last four years,” Rickenmann said.
“We have encampments across all our districts and cities, and we’re seeing more and more folks who aren't being helped to get out of homelessness," Rickenmann added. "So, when we look across the country, nobody's building shelters anymore—they are building a containerized place to help people A) get off the street and then work with them to get wrap-around services, so trying to centralize services. We want to address it sooner than later."
Rickenmann said that the city is not looking to operate or own the site but instead develop it and have a third party take over. Both Oliver Gospel and Transitions attended previous meetings and discussed their visions.
“There has to be a mechanism that helps homeless people downtown where they are. You have to do it downtown,” said Craig Currey, president and CEO of Transitions Homeless Center. “The key word becomes expansion vs key location. More services, better services is what we’re interested in.”
Rickenmann added that there is no location set in stone for where this campus could go, noting that it is still in the early stages of planning.