Hillborough Delays Shelter for Homeless
by Erin Macbeth

While controversy surrounds plans to relocate Chapel Hill’s homeless shelter, a nearby community is debating building its first.

Downtown Hillsborough is as warm and charming as any small North Carolina town, but a recent decision by the town’s planning board is leaving some residents out in the cold. The board voted Tuesday night to delay a proposal to allow homeless shelters to operate in town.

Unlike Chapel Hill, Hillsborough has never had a homeless shelter of its own. And, although the homeless population may not be as visible as in Chapel Hill, some residents say it is a problem that needs to be addressed.

“There’s a particular guy that I’m thinking about, I don’t know him, but everyday on my way to work, I see him out on the streets, and my heart just bleeds because he has no place to put his head at night,” said Emily Pratt, a Hillsborough resident. “If we had a shelter, we’d all be doing him a favor and helping someone for a change.”

Others see no problem at all.

“We’re around a lot, and I certainly haven’t seen much evidence of homeless here,” Jim Parsley said. “It’s not obvious to me that we have a serious homeless population here.”

Prior to last month’s meeting, the board drafted an ordinance to address the issues that currently prevent a homeless shelter from being built in Hillsborough. But board member Bryant Warren said the board decided Tuesday to put the proposal on hold for at least three additional months.

“All of us on the Planning Board feel like that is something we need to do,” Warren said, “but we just need to make sure it’s right. We need to make sure that all the “I”s are dotted and “T”s are crossed before we ever go along with it.”

Warren said the board plans to look closely at a provision that would allow a homeless shelter to be built within 1,000 feet of commercial property. As board members continue to ride the fence on this issue, one of the biggest concerns is that a shelter could be built in the town’s historic district.

Warren says that it’s clear that there is a homeless situation that needs to be addressed. What isn’t clear when or how that will happen. Until the town board makes up its mind, it may be another winter on the streets for Hillsborough’s homeless.