What can Fayetteville and Cumberland officials learn from Raleigh's homeless day center?
As Fayetteville moves forth with creating a homeless day center, officials from the city and Cumberland County made their way to Raleigh on Tuesday morning to tour Oak City Cares, a homeless day center being used as a model for Fayetteville's project. The tour provided an opportunity for local city and county leaders to learn more about how Raleigh and Wake County governments collaborated to build Oak City Cares. Previously: Fayetteville is solidifying its homeless day center plan. Here's what to know. Among the officials from Cumberland County present were Board of Commissioners Chairman Charles Evans, county spokeswoman Sally Shutt and assistant county manager Angela Wright-Lanier. Fayetteville's representatives included Mayor Mitch Colvin, Councilwoman Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, Councilman Larry Wright and Chris Cauley, the city's director of economic and community development. Cauley said Tuesday that the architect for Oak City Cares is the same one the city hired to come up with plans for Fayetteville's day center. Before the start of the tour, members of the Wake County Board of Commissioners and officials from Raleigh spoke to the visiting group of officials. "The city and the county, we work well together with a number of projects," Wake County Manager David Ellis said. "And while we all have our respective lanes, we respect the respective lanes, but we're also there to support one another." In Fayetteville and Cumberland County, deciding who's going to be responsible for building the day center has been in flux since the idea's inception. The city took control of the project last year after the county balked at hiring consultantsneeded in order to apply for grant funding. More info: Fayetteville homeless day center poised to kick off  More info: Fayetteville moves ahead with new homeless day center  Raleigh City Manager Marchell Adams-David said that Oak City Cares' success was due to officials from the city and county being able to work together. "This works because we had city and county officials who checked their egos at the door," Adams-David said. "It wasn't about what our normal protocol looks like, what we are supposed to be doing as a state government, as a county government. It was about doing what is right for the people." Groups split into two to venture through the center and see its amenities. As Oak City Cares' executive director Kathy Johnson weaved one touring group through the center, she told them about the various booths where guests can get help with housing, mental health services, food stamps, veteran services and medical needs. There's also help available for sexual assault survivors, she said. She said three agencies at the center do street outreach for youth, adults, families and those with mental health issues. They also have a housing navigation unit to give landlords inventory and incentives to rent to the homeless community. The center provides multiple mental health providers in accordance with law, Johnson said  they have to give guests a choice for care. A section of the center was turned into a play area for children who've experienced trauma. Oak City Cares' laundry facility allots two loads of laundry per guest per day with Tide Pods: Johnson said using the pods is more expensive but extends the life of the washing machines. Guests can also take a 20-minute shower in one of the four showers available at the center. Johnson said the center can run up to 80 showers a day and anywhere between 30 to 40 loads of laundry. Johnson said that Oak City Cares tries to send a welcoming message as soon as guests walk in the door. Those seeking services are referred to as guests. The front area where people are greeted is called the welcome area and was designed to look like a hotel lobby. In the welcome area, there's usually coffee brewing, Johnson said, but that bit of hospitality fell victim to the pandemic  The center also houses a lab for medical partners to conduct blood work, urine tests and sexually transmitted disease and HIV tests. To pick up prescriptions, Johnson said, they'll send people through the CVS Pharmacy drive through in an Uber. Here's what some said. Oak City Cares is also preparing for an expansion. In October, construction will start on an area to house Wake County's housing department and possibly veteran's services, Johnson said. It's expected to be completed sometime next spring or summer. The tour was followed by a presentation on how the day center came to be and a question and answer segment with officials and Oak City Cares staff. While Fayetteville is working toward opening a day center, officials for both the city and county have pointed at a need for shelter. Colvin asked how having a homeless shelter fits into day center plans, and said there have been discussions about a shelter but that Fayetteville's city manager believes it should be separate from the day center. Ellis said the concept they focused on for Oak City Cares was to make it like a campus. Next door, he said, there's a shelter for men. They toyed with the idea of a women's shelter close by but concerns came up that prevented it from happening. Rick Miller, a board member for Oak City Cares, said that as a result, they weren't serving as many women and children as Oak City Cares staff would like to. Ellis said having the shelter close by provides people staying there the ability to walk over and receive the services they need. Colvin said there were concerns that having a shelter nearby would counteract getting people out of homelessness. Johnson said it required "intentional work" to coordinate. Miller said that while a shelter was needed, the focus should be getting people into housing. He said the day center helps provide services to get the homeless community housed. Wright asked about collaboration and how getting the homeless housed works. Johnson explained the coordinated entry system and the call center to help get people housed. From those calls, Johnson said, guests are referred to a shelter if there's space available, or someone in street outreach will stay in contact with that person until they get shelter. Miller said an important role Oak City Cares plays is getting people into housing. The staff's focus is also to address other issues people searching for housing might be running into as far as substance abuse disorders and mental illnesses that could prevent them from staying in housing once they get it. Wright told the group of officials he hoped they could emulate the same partnership used to create Oak City Cares in Cumberland County as the city builds its own center. Cauley said the city anticipates going over potential layouts for Fayetteville's day center and revealing the proposed site at the June 28 Fayetteville City Council meeting. Government watchdog reporter Abby Church can be reached at achurch@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @abbschurch. Support local journalism with a subscription to The Fayetteville Observer. Click the "subscribe'' link at the top of this article.