They asked, and they received.
Homeless or formerly homeless people won two seats on the Homeless Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County on Tuesday night during a gospel-music-inspired meeting at a small church in downtown Winston-Salem.
Four formerly homeless people shared their experiences with David Harold, the executive director of the Homeless Council. Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines then asked that Harold reserve two seats on the council for homeless or formerly homeless people. Cheers erupted in the room upon Joines' promise.
The Homeless Council includes representatives from nonprofit and government organizations. The council organizes an annual count of homeless people in Forsyth and helps distribute federal grant money to local agencies that deal with the homeless.
Harold promised that homeless or formerly homeless people would have two voting seats on the council, adding that he would pay those representatives a small stipend for their work. The two members will be chosen within a few weeks.
"For a long time, we have wanted this; we just didn't know how to make it happen," Harold said. "Homeless people and people who have recently been homeless know much better what works than people like me."
Joines, too, promised to try to appoint homeless or formerly homeless people to boards and commissions that deal with homeless issues.
"How could anybody say no?" Joines said. "We need someone to put a face on the invisibility of homelessness."
The meeting was organized by the Homeless Caucus, a group consisting mostly of homeless or formerly homeless people. The caucus was formed by the community-organizing group CHANGE, or Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment.
Bernadette Wilson-Conley, a member of the caucus who spoke at Tuesday night's meeting, said she became homeless after moving her family to Greensboro from Miami. Her then-husband did not move with her, and Wilson-Conley said she found herself alone with three small children.
"I knew I could work; I wanted to get a job," she said. "But I needed someplace safe for my kids to stay while I did it."
Wilson-Conley eventually found help through a Greensboro housing group. She said she met a number of women through the Greensboro program who were intelligent and who had jobs but who remained homeless or in transitional housing because their jobs paid low wages that would not cover the cost of child care.
Wilson-Conley said having people who have been homeless on the council would help Forsyth draw more federal grant money.
"It makes us much more attractive and competitive," Wilson-Conley said.
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