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Hopewell committee outlines faith-based model for unsheltered services after New Bern site visit
Summary
An unsheltered-committee field-trip report described a New Bern, N.C., faith-community model that pairs daily no-barrier meals, case management and a small emergency bed capacity with extensive volunteer networks; committee plans to return with a local proposal developed with faith-based partners.
Mr. Bennett, speaking for the city's unsheltered committee, summarized a site visit to New Bern, North Carolina, portraying a decades-old, community-driven model that couples daily meal service with case management, targeted housing placement and workforce services.
Bennett described the New Bern operation as a community campus that started as volunteer work in 1982 and grew into a nonprofit with paid staff and broad volunteer support. "They serve a meal 365 days a year," he said, and staff and volunteers provide additional services such as an emergency shelter, family rooms, a job-readiness boot camp run with a local community college, and a build-a-bag clothing boutique that supplies interview clothing.
He reported operational figures from the visit: daily feeding of approximately 100–120 people, emergency overnight beds kept intentionally small (10 beds for men and 10 for women) because the model prioritizes rapid placement into housing, and 232 referrals to local partnerships in 2023. The site employs about 15 paid staff and multiple volunteer groups daily, with formal case-management systems to track services and outcomes.
Bennett said local faith-based groups in Hopewell have developed plans inspired by New Bern's model and that those groups will present a proposal at the next council meeting. He framed the report as introductory and asked council to consider the model's potential to provide "full wrap around" services locally.
Council asked clarifying questions but took no formal action during the work session; Bennett said he would return with a proposal developed with local faith-based partners.
