Columbia to spend $1 million again to provide aid to its homeless population
The city of Columbia in coming months will spend $1 million to help the homeless, including at the winter shelter and Main Street’s Transitions center, a total that is about the same as recent years.
The single largest part of the budget approved Tuesday by Columbia City Council for the homeless population is $333,000 to operate the winter shelter. It opens between Nov. 1 and March 31 on nights when temperatures dip to 40 degrees or lower.
Last year, the shelter was budgeted to be open 100 nights but had residents for 65 nights, said Mac Bennett, chief executive officer of United Way of the Midlands, which has overseen the shelter the past two years. Warm winter temperatures for two consecutive years have kept the shelter from operating at capacity.
During those 65 nights, 739 men and women stayed at the city-owned facility that overlooks the downtown water plant.
“We came in well under budget,” Bennett told council.
The shelter also served as a temporary shelter for homeowners during October’s historic floods when officials could not find private shelters, city leaders have said.
The shelter budget includes about $40,000 for the Salvation Army to provide hot meals and light breakfasts. Almost $83,000 is for transporting homeless clients to and from the shelter – clients are prohibited from walking up – and for security costs at the facility.
City Council also approved $325,000 to help operate Transitions, a nonprofit organization that provides daytime services and overnight accommodations for some 260 homeless adults. That budget is a $25,000 increase over last year’s funding, said Missy Cauthen, the city’s budget director.
Housing First, a transitional housing program run through the University of South Carolina, will get $225,000 – the same as last year, Cauthen said. That program housed 107 clients and moved 40 of them to permanent housing, according to data provided to City Council.
City Hall also is paying $140,000 for two homelessness coordinators, who are hired through the United Way.
Columbia’s total budget for homeless services is $1,055,000. That number has not varied much even after a protracted fight led by former Councilman Cameron Runyan to cut spending and get more homeless people out of the city center.
The most recent annual snapshot of the number of homeless people in 14 counties that include Richland County shows a 16 percent decrease in that population compared to the same time in 2015, according to data released by the United Way. Numbers just for Richland County were not provided during the United Way’s presentation Tuesday to City Council.
The United Way received $3 million in federal funding for homelessness program in the 14-county area.
Other action
City Council acted Tuesday on other matters that ranged from high-dollar borrowing to recreation. The council:
▪ Tentatively approved $281 million in bonds, the largest portion of which are refinanced bonds that the city’s chief financial officer projects will save taxpayers some $20 million over 24 years in lower interest payments.
▪ OK’d $126,000 to operate a downtown ice-skating rink starting around Thanksgiving, even though the rink has lost $250,000 since it opened in late 2011.
▪ Asked consultants to come back with a scaled-back plan from a $20 million Cadillac version for the reconstruction of Finlay Park.
▪ Authorized $4.9 million to have an engineering firm design a plan for fixing the October rupture in the Columbia Canal dike.
This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Columbia to spend $1 million again to provide aid to its homeless population."