In times of hardship, it’s important for families to stay together: in an effort to provide this opportunity for Pitt County families facing homelessness, Community Crossroads Center has reopened its family rooms after four years of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The center celebrated the reopening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 2, attended by the Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, local and state representatives and other members of the community.
“When the pandemic hit three years ago, we made the hard decision to close our family rooms in order to keep everyone safe and to have social distancing,” said CCC’s Executive Director Charles Young prior to the ribbon-cutting.
“We reopened the family rooms back in the middle of July, we’ve got three families staying here now, we’ve got a fourth family coming tonight,” Young continued. “So the family rooms are almost filled right now.”
Unique from other homeless shelters where individual family members must stay in their respective communal dorms based on their gender, CCC’s family rooms allow families to stay together at night in their own room.
The shelter is currently offering four rooms for Pitt County families facing homelessness, with no limitation to the number of family members per room.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the center operated medical clinics in the family rooms through a partnership with East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine. To continue to offer support to Pitt County families, CCC and the City of Greenville offered short-term housing through a hotel voucher program.
Over 18 months, CCC’s hotel voucher program housed 61 different households and 187 individuals, including 115 children.
As pandemic restrictions relax, the clinics will now be performed through mobile labs and the center’s family rooms have been reopened in order to offer space for families directly at the shelter.
While CCC currently offers safe housing through its emergency shelter and other housing assistance programs, the center is preparing for a new on-site building that will provide additional space for expanded services.
These services, aimed to promote long-term self-sufficiency for each of the center’s residents, will include educational programming, medical clinics, career advising, after-school care and more.
“We are planning to provide more services to our residents in the future with a new resource center,” Young said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We are expanding our services to families so they can stay in tact while they gain self-sufficiency.”
Last month, CCC saw its highest month of occupancy for 2023. For the month of July, the center averaged about 55 people a night. The center housed 69 residents the night of August 1.
“I want to thank everyone for your support, without the support of our community we would not be here,” Young concluded.
The center’s President of the Board of Directors Janet Moye formally cut the ribbon placed across the entrance to the family rooms. Those in attendance toured each family room, as well as a common area equipped with children’s books and toys.
Those interested in learning more about the Community Crossroads Center and its family rooms can contact our office at (252) 752-0829 or leave a message on the CCC website.
