Housing Rights

By: Beau Delapouyade, Lizzy Adkisson, and Clark Woodard

Over the course of the year, Beau, Lizzy, and myself have worked on both networking with in the community by volunteering and have become active within homeless organizations. In addition, we have been collecting information on resources for two separate pamphlet. Beau has been focusing more heavily on the networking aspect of our project. She has volunteered under Laurie Tucker, the Residential Services Director at Interfaith Council Community House in Chapel Hill. Interfaith Community Council provides a facility which sleeps 30 men, located on the corner of Rosemary St. and Columbia Ave. Beau has also become involved with Project Homeless Connect (PHC). PHC is a one day event in which homeless can access to dental, housing, daycare, and social services. Cities across the globe have adopted the premise of PHC. The second annual event is scheduled for September 25, 2008. If anyone is interested in attending the next meeting which will be held on May 8, contact Beau (beau14@email.unc.edu).

On the other side of the project, we have worked on collecting and compiling resources for the homeless. The final project should be completed with in the week. Then, we plan on distributing it to both the Interfaith Council Community House as well as at the May 8^th Project Homeless Connect meeting. The second pamphlet will consist of tips for community involvement and awareness. We have also discussed creating a facebook event in hopes of encouraging student donations of can food and clothing to the IFC shelter.

As far as next year goes, it is important that students continue to build strong ties with community members who are actively working to solve the homeless problem in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro community. As the day nears, Project Homeless Connect will inevitably need more and more help. Continued involvement will spark future projects and networking will be key in the success of demonstrating the necessity of housing rights within a human rights framework.