Right now, over 250 people are living on the streets of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, in places not fit for human habitation, such as cars, tent encampments, and abandoned buildings.

 

City with Dwellings is the primary resource for the unsheltered or “street” homeless community in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, providing safe space, housing assistance, advocacy, transportation, and access to resources so that our most vulnerable neighbors can achieve housing stability.

Our work is about helping people who are chronically homeless leave the streets for a new life. Our outreach staff patiently build trusting relationships with our unhoused neighbors. That trust building requires listening, personalized strategies, and ultimately, helping support our neighbors’ desire to walk away from years of surviving a life unsheltered and move toward healing, transforming, and thriving in an appropriate housing setting.

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City with Dwellings employs low-barrier strategies grounded in trauma-informed care, healing, and harm reduction that elevate the lived expertise of people experiencing homelessness. We build relationships with our unsheltered neighbors, providing the assistance and encouragement necessary for them to take steps toward health and housing stability. Staff and volunteers at our Community First Center connect our neighbors to shelter, housing, food, healthcare resources, and more. For the past 11 years, CwD has provided winter emergency shelter in partnership with local churches and hundreds of volunteers. CwD’s peer support specialists (certified professionals with lived experience of homelessness, mental health or substance use disorders) provide supportive services for highly vulnerable, newly-housed individuals who've experienced chronic homelessness.

 

You’ve heard the saying, ‘it takes a village.’ At City with Dwellings, we prefer ‘it takes a city’ to build community and end homelessness.