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Community partnership initiative seeks faith-based organizations to address homelessness throughout region

By Faith Hatton, posted Oct 26, 2026 on BizFayetteville.com

An upcoming event is issuing an open invitation for community collaboration for Fayetteville and Cumberland County’s faith-based organizations to address homelessness across the county. 

On Thursday, Oct. 29, the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Continuum of Care, in partnership with Fayetteville Technical Community College, the Greater Fayetteville Business Journal and Home Pro USA Realty, will be hosting a Community Partnership Initiative event to address and transform the trajectory of homelessness. 

The event will take place from 8 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. at the Tony Rand Student Center located on FTCC’s campus. The event will feature presentations from 12 organizations and government departments currently addressing the needs of the homeless in Cumberland County. Cumberland County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kirk deViere and City of Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin will provide opening remarks.

“It is hoped that people will see we are trying to collaborate; that our efforts are not just separate from the city and the county, but collaboratively with them,” shared Dr. Deborah Harris, chairperson for the Fayetteville-Cumberland Continuum of Care. “There's a gap between the community and the government officials, not in the desire to do something, but in the active motion or movement to something. And there are a lot of programs out there, but we've had some challenges in deciding just what is something we can all work toward.”  

A main goal of this event is to inform area churches and faith communities about the upcoming Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, which will take place during the last full week of January 2027. Mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, this comprehensive assessment measures both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness across Cumberland County. 

Help is needed to identify where people experiencing homelessness frequently gather so outreach teams can be deployed to those areas in January. In June of 2025, preliminary results from the 2025 PIT Count registered 383 homeless residents in the county.  

The need is urgent for volunteers who are willing to be trained to assist with PIT Count efforts. With more than 980 churches registered for the Fayetteville and Cumberland County area, this is an open call for local faith-based organizations to help put to work the principle taught in James 2:15-16.

“The reason we're asking the churches is, we have something called spatial clustering. That is a demographic term, particularly for the homeless. It’s well documented that people cluster in downtown Fayetteville because we have Inasmuch, which provides breakfast, Salvation Army provides dinner and Fayetteville Cares provides lunch five days a week, all within a mile radius of Hay Street. So, there's an incentive for the homeless to stay in the downtown area. So that's where we go and we count and we do the PIT count. However, we have four corners of Cumberland County,” shared event organizer Dr. Sammy Choi. “We want to show all the elected officials, the county and city management, that we are bringing the first-ever- I believe- objective, research-based methodology to the homeless.” 

Attendees will hear directly from leaders across government, academia, healthcare, nonprofit organizations, the faith community and other community partners on how they are doing their part to support the homeless community. 

“Cape Fear Valley Health is an invested stakeholder in our community. Our health system is a safeguard for those who are most vulnerable. Access to care is a very important part of this conversation, and we serve everyone that comes through our doors. And our emergency departments are often the safety net of many individuals that don't have access to care otherwise,” shared Dr. Michael Ruzek, chief quality officer for Cape Fear Valley Health and a scheduled speaker at the event. “Resources are finite at times, so having resources as well outside of the four doors of the hospital [matters], because good health doesn't stop at the point of discharge. This is a wonderful community, and I think what makes it special are these types of events and individuals that speak up and really intentionally serve their fellow neighbors and community members.” 

The overarching goal of the event is to foster an opportunity for continued collaboration when addressing homelessness in Cumberland County, working together instead of dividing and attempting to conquer. 

“You could become involved in some of these (programs), or you could also help us be more collaborative with each of these entities. Instead of everybody fighting for little [fragments] of funding that’s out there, we look to find some type of collaborative way where we can all benefit and we can make a difference in how homelessness is handled in our community, ” continued Dr. Harris. “It is going to be important for the community to understand that this is not a one-time event where you get people excited, or you move them, you trigger their emotions. That's not what it is. It's a lot to undertake. We need people who are serious and committed and, above all, called.” 

Anyone interested in attending the event can register to attend here. 

 

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