The city of Roanoke is launching a new task force to address its unhoused population.
In June, Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb pressed for the formation of a citywide task force to address the issue of unhoused people in the Roanoke Valley. On Monday, he announced a wide-ranging group of community members will be part of the city's new Hope and Home Task Force.
Because it offers a range of social services not found in other communities in western Virginia, Cobb says Roanoke has long been a destination for people without housing.
"The city of Roanoke carries the heaviest burden, and the highest level of responsibility in this work," Cobb says.
Up until 2020, the number of unhoused people in Roanoke had been on the decline. But the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic reversed the trend, leading the city council to ban camping on downtown sidewalks in late 2021. This new task force, which consists of business owners, service providers, neighborhood representatives, and others, will spend the next 18 months assessing what services are available, looking for gaps, and making recommendations to improve everything from housing to mental healthcare.
Courtney Downs is one of the new task force members. She works for the Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition, but first arrived in Roanoke as an unhoused person herself.
"The reason why this is important to me is because I used to be the person sleeping under the bridge, over there by Tazewell, right by the Mission," Downs says. "I came into this community because I was one of the people dropped off by a cab from another locality. It is the community that kept me anchored and connected long enough until I could find what I needed to find in order to be here today."
Cobb invites the community to participate in the initiative. He asks that people bring not just complaints, but ideas to help.
"The reasons that people are becoming unhoused are multi-faceted," Cobb says. "They are very complex. While people like to believe and like to say as part of the stigma that people choose to be homeless, that is simply not accurate. Everybody needs a place to call home. We would prefer that not be a tent."
The group expects to hold its first meeting later in August or September.
