I’d honestly be much more positive about an addiction treatment center where people are actually trying to get better than a shelter that just has homeless people hanging out waiting for food.
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I’m not the OP and don’t live near Healing Transitions. Someone close to me recently organized a community service project with HT and learned from their staff about some of the challenges that are likely impacting the nearby neighborhoods.
Healing Transitions primarily offers long-term, in-house recovery programming, but they recently started operating a drop-in shelter. People utilizing the drop-in services are not in recovery and often have no interest in recovery services. They leave the shelter during the day.
FWIW, Healing Transitions patients in the recovery program have walked through my neighborhood during the day for the 12 years that I’ve lived here. They go to some sort of job assistance training downtown. They have never caused problems that I’m aware of.
I do live near the temporary shelter on W Cabarrus. It
offers no recovery or mental health services that I’m aware of. They do require people to place their possessions in a locker to stay there and I’ve seen people getting angry about that.
There has been an increase in trash, loitering, fights, antisocial behavior, and crime in the vicinity. There are days when I can’t walk along the sidewalk going into The Depot because there are so many people sitting or lying around at the corner of Cabarrus. Can’t be good for the businesses there. My partner has seen people walking in the middle of Cabarrus challenging motorists who try to reasonably go around them.
As a petite woman, I never used to feel unsafe walking through this area when the Helen Wright Women’s Center was at this location, but now I avoid walking in this area in the evenings and definitely after dark. It really sucks in the darker months.
These services are needed, but if you don’t live near a drop-in shelter, it’s hard to have an understanding of what it’s like to live around people who aren’t receiving mental health and recovery services and are, in many cases, not willing to accept the assistance they need.
ETA: I honestly hate even bringing this up because I know people need help. I admit that I don’t know what the answer is. I try not to complain about things I don’t have a solution for, but after experiencing someone I know having a mental health emergency, I realize there is a safety risk component. Multiple things can be true at the same time.
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I live in the same neighborhood as Deb and agree with everything above. I’ve also witnessed a lot of the same activity plus even more violent activity in the area.
I also agree that these services are important and need to exist in the city.
What I would hope is that there is a recognition by the city (or whoever is supposed to manage this stuff) that both of these statements are valid and that there is a responsibility to try to minimize the negative impact on surrounding communities where these facilities are located. I don’t know what that is, but it seems shortsighted to not acknowledge that there will likely be negative impacts on surrounding communities if no action is taken.
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Someone stole my neighbor’s car and smoked crack in it last Sunday morning. Every day at least 50 homeless people walk in front of my house. Everyone in my neighborhood has Chris Budnick’s cell phone number in case something happens. He usually knows the person that did it and then bans them.
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Also for context I realized people might not know that Healing Transitions is a “wet” homeless shelter now in addition to being a “dry” rehab facility. This change was made about two years ago and the county pays them for taking in people as they run the homeless shelters under capacity. We didn’t have any issues before they became a homeless shelter.
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I also live in the area. Has been an increase in early morning wanderings through the neighborhood to grab items off porches, in yards, car break-in attempts, etc. The spillover from the area around Healing Transitions has led to a big increase in people living in the woods off of the greenway as well.
Obviously there’s no easy solution when dealing with unhoused and/or substance abuse questions, but there has been a big increase in this type of activity of late that has been very apparent to anyone living in the vicinity.
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Is it wrong to bring back the workhouses of dickensian times?
Indeed, I was unaware of the somewhat recent change (in becoming a homeless shelter in addition to rehab facility), and I can’t say I blame you for being angry about the negative impact its having on surrounding areas. With this info, I do see its proximity to Dix (and specifically the Play area they’re building) as a downside. It’s difficult because the “dry rehab facility” as you refer to is so necessary and helpful, and was never a source of issue for that area in the past, but then of course if city/county homeless shelters are always at capacity, it IS beneficial to have more space opened up - it’s not like this isn’t a necessity, also - these people need SOMEWHERE to go, and a shelter is 1000% better than the streets. But with such little oversight (aka just banning problem-people after they’ve commited a crime or caused issue with surrounding neighborhood), that raises a whole bunch of new issues. This kind of thing cannot continue to be a “fix the problem after it happens” sort of deal, or it most certainly WILL have a negative impact on the park next door.
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A bit more context, I watched a video of the HT director speaking in 2018 and he referred to it as both a dry and wet rehab facility, meaning they allow users into at least a portion of the clinic? So I’m guessing the real issues of late is the expanded drop-in shelter
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That’s what it’s sounding like. Even as a ‘wet’ rehab, that’s still a place where people are consciously going in an attempt to better themselves and kick an addiction, whereas a drop-in shelter is, to put it bluntly, strictly for folks very much reserved to their life on the streets, living in anonymity. Hence why there is apparently a huge increase in porch-pirates, crack-smoking car thieves, etc (just going from the anecdotal evidence presented in this thread). THAT’S not really doing anyone much good, in my harsh opinion. Not even the people dropping-in for temporary shelter, because at the end of the day, they’re not improving their lives overall by doing it- just their day-to-day living situation, for whatever brief time they stay. There HAS to be better solutions to this sh!t…
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I mean, I already mentioned the workhouses…
120 years ago, these folks would have the know how, skills, and resolve to build shack housing on the edge of town (no permits, no zoning, no electricity nor running water) and begin building some form of stability in their life. We’ve deemed that unacceptable as a society, so the alternative is tents in the woods
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I had a picnic this afternoon nearby the Flower Cottage at Dix Park, with the skyline view of Raleigh it really reminded me of past picnics in New York City’s Central Park looking south toward midtown’s skyline. Excited to see the area develop so that more people utilize the park and are comfortable that high density urban housing doesn’t mean great outdoor activities are inaccessible.
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And the city’s skyline is migrating closer and closer to Dix. All good things and continues to highlight the importance of properly developing Dix and connectivity to DTR. The most important being the connectivity as it’s lacking today thanks to Western Blvd.
We need the Artery, land bridge as well as the gondola in place.
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I agree. I just wish Red Hat Amphitheater would go on Dix site and do it right! But Boylan Heights neighbors would not like. The area will be dense in few years
I want a larger amphitheater in Dix and I want Red Hat Amp right where they want to put it. These are not really the same desires as acts of different sizes need venues of different capacities.
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yeah, i’m imagining something along the lines of the forest theater in chapel hill or even ncma amphitheater within dix
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Dreamville has seemed to prove the merit of the large festival in Dix Park.
Red Hat is moving / expanding to compete with Koka capacity while maintaining its urban setting.
I’m leaning towards a more intimate outdoor venue as being the perfect scenario for the park as it evolves ( unless we could get something like the perfect hybrid between the Greek in Berkeley / Hollywood Bowl in LA around 12K capacity ) 
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They have started installing the “sunflower” power lines…was driving so didn’t take a photo.
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The Conservancy said there won’t be any plans to put an outdoor amphitheater in the park. That conversation came up during the Red Hat relocation discussions.
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