SALISBURY, Md. -- The Executive Director of the Christian Shelter in Salisbury is participating in a nationwide initiative called "Conversations on a Bench." The initiative aims to spread awareness about the city's homeless population.
J. Anthony Dickerson, the shelter's executive director, sat down on a bench outside the shelter's Barclay Street location at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, and he will remain seated for 24 hours straight.
His day-long mission has multiple goals. Number one: raise awareness.
"Homelessness is real, and hopefully we can come up with solutions, we can develop a task force, we can take our resources and we can unite together," said Dickerson.
Goal number two: conversations.
On Thursday, Dickerson spoke with Salisbury's mayor, Randy Taylor, and Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes. He also spoke with Salisbury's Housing and Homelessness Manager, Christine Chestnutt, and took time to speak with WBOC.
"I want them[people] to be more aware, I want them to be sensitive to some of the homeless needs," said Dickerson.
Thursday's conversations also highlighted the potential end to a program that helps the homeless in the City of Salisbury.
The city established the Housing First program in 2017. It aims to provide people with affordable, permanent housing solutions. However, the city's current administration recently sent a letter to the handful of program participants, warning them that Housing First will be ending in two years.
"What we realized is that overtime we've had the same basic group of people kind of in the program," said Taylor.
The program starts people off with temporary housing at Anne Street Village and then, in theory, sets them up with a more permanent solution. However, Taylor said the program isn't working in its current state.
"The permanent supportive housing was supposed to be sort of a gateway, not 'we're going to be providing permanent supportive housing'," said Taylor. "So, what we're hoping to do is not end the program, but recast the funds to help more people."
Dickerson agrees that the program isn't perfect, but urges the city to keep it around, telling WBOC it is necessary.
"It needs to work, so rather than to do away with it, I think they need to save it, tweak it a little bit," said Dickerson. "How can we make Housing First better? How can we make housing first effective?"
An effort to raise awareness and find solutions for Salisbury's homeless population amidst uncertainty surrounding one of the city's current resources.
Dickerson will take a quick break from talking with people around 11:00 p.m. on Thursday, but will be outside on the bench overnight. He plans on resuming his conversations early on Friday morning.