Greensboro asks for welcome-home baskets to furnish housing-first pilot

Greensboro is asking residents to think less about decorative housewarming gifts and more about the first night in a bare apartment. Through its Housing First Plus pilot, the city wants Welcome Home Baskets and furniture for 20 people moving out of chronic homelessness, with some clients expected to enter unfurnished homes as soon as Monday, June 1.

The shopping list is bluntly practical because that is the point. City officials want donations of laundry baskets, key chains or lanyards, cleaning supplies, paper towels, toilet paper, shower curtains and hooks, trash cans and bags, bath and kitchen towels, hangers, a queen pillow, comforters and sheets, plates and cups, basic kitchen utensils, pots and pans, a broom and dustpan. Furniture matters just as much: mattresses, box springs, bedframes, nightstands, dressers, lamps, chairs, small couches, coffee tables, TVs, TV stands, and small kitchen tables with two chairs.

That mix tells the real story of housing after homelessness. A candle or vase may look polished, but a bed, a set of towels and a working lamp do the emotional work of a first home. They let someone close the door, sleep in one place and cook a meal without starting from nothing again the next morning.

Housing First Plus is the city’s new low-barrier housing model for people experiencing chronic homelessness who are also high utilizers of emergency and crisis services. Participants are not self-referred. They are identified by a multidisciplinary team that includes the City of Greensboro Community Safety Department, Greensboro Police Department, EMS, Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, Cone Health, Downtown Greensboro Ambassadors and local homeless service providers. The program pairs housing with intensive, person-centered case management focused on mental health, substance use and other complex needs.

The landlord side is built to keep units available. Participating landlords receive a $1,000 leasing incentive per unit, access to a risk mitigation fund and a 24/7 support line. Greensboro held a landlord engagement meeting on April 27 at the Yvonne J. Johnson Event Center at Barber Park, a sign that the pilot depends on both private property owners and community donations to get people housed quickly.

City materials said the 20 targeted residents were costing local systems about $30,000 per person each year in EMS, emergency room use, police time, jail stays and court processing. That is the financial backdrop to a program city leaders framed in March as a shift away from temporary shelter and toward permanent housing. Guilford County’s 2024 Point-in-Time count found 641 people experiencing homelessness, up from 452 in 2023, underscoring why Greensboro is asking for the most unglamorous gifts of all: the ones that make a room livable on day one.