Enlarge Judy Seldin-Cohen navigates SolveThePuzzleCharlotte.org. Photo by Professional Communications

Posted: February 16th, 2012 Lee Howard

Four steps to solving the homeless paradigm: Prevention, housing and services. But first, it starts with people.

“This is a problem that is impossible to solve individually,” Temple Beth El volunteer Judy Seldin-Cohen this week said to a gathering at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library uptown. “But it is a problem we can solve together.”

We’ve all been there. There’s the shabby fellow standing on the street corner with a “Will work for food” sign written on a piece of cardboard. Under current economic circumstances, it’s not an unfamiliar sight anywhere in Charlotte. You roll down your window, flip the guy a buck before the light turns green, and you’ve done your good deed for the day.

But curing homelessness is much more complicated than handing out loose change. An ensemble cast of experts on homelessness, church organizations and non-profits have launched Solve the Puzzle Charlotte, a project designed to make local homelessness a thing of the past within the next 10 years.

A group of about 60 met this week at the uptown library to view the new Solve the Puzzle Web site (click here for the site).

Solving homelessness requires giving more than the occasional handout to a grubby beggar. It requires your heart, your soul and your time, said Beth El Rabbi Judy Schindler

“If everyone picks up a piece of the puzzle, then we can get things done,” she said.

Those associated with the development of Solve the Puzzle include the Knight Foundation, which funded the effort; Homeless Services Network, which coordinated the Web site content and the agency selection process; the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Coalition, which collated the information included on the Web site; and Temple Beth El and the Urban Ministry Center, which, together, have been leading the project.

“We don’t have to have people continue to go into homelessness,” said Pam Jefsen, executive director of Supportive Housing Communities. Jefsen was one of the acknowledged attendees at the meeting.

Jefsen’s group developed a 91-unit apartment complex called McCreesh Place  on North Davidson Street.

She says it is a “permanent, supportive” living environment for formerly homeless people who are mentally or physically disabled, along with those who are recovering from alcohol and substance abuse. But, she said, primarily, it’s a place for people.

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