SALISBURY — Only one person spoke during Monday’s Rowan County Board of Commissioners meeting about the need for more resources to address homelessness in the community, but the commissioners took the time to address the issue themselves and speak to the public about what role the county fills.

Tara Puma spoke during the public comment period about how she attended a “Community Conversations” event hosted by the Salisbury-Rowan NAACP which brought speakers such as Salisbury Police Department’s Homeless Liaison Dennis Rivers and Rowan Helping Ministries Executive Director Kyna Grubb to speak about how each of their organizations was handling the issue of helping the homeless population. During that event, Puma said that some of the participants spoke about how the county government is responsible for how much funding is given to the municipalities to assist the homeless people of Rowan County.

Although Puma was the only one to speak, Chairman Greg Edds said that he had heard some of the same comments and more outside of the commissioner meetings.

“Since that meeting took place a few weeks ago, I’ve heard a lot about, you know, that we’ve got money sitting somewhere,” said Edds.

Edds then asked County Manager Aaron Church to go into how the county spends the funding it receives for human health and services, such as the $70 million spent on food and nutrition, the $4 million for daycare or the $10 million for child support. The total budget was close to $250 million according to Edds, who also said that most of that money was pass-through money, or money that the state or federal governments give to Rowan County to then disburse as needed.

Rowan Helping Ministries Vice-Chairman Matt Marsh did speak at the meeting about what the organization does to help the homeless people of Rowan County. Rowan Helping Ministries is a program-based homeless shelter, which means that they have systems, including rules, in place to assist the homeless people they serve find jobs, housing and any other help that they may need.

Marsh said the organization is aimed at helping the citizens of Rowan County, homeless people who are not Rowan citizens can stay at the shelter for up to three days but that is the extent of what is offered to those from other communities.

Marsh did say that because Rowan Helping Ministries is program-based, some people do not want to stay at the shelter because of the required sobriety. He said some people cannot stay because of their pets, or do not want to live around other people or some simply do not want the help that the organization provides.

Marsh also spoke about where the organization’s funding comes from. Marsh said that most of their funding comes from donations from different foundations and individual contributions. The rest comes from government contracts with Veteran Affairs, and the organization has applied through the Rowan County government for American Rescue Plan Act funding that would assist with the transitional components of the program.

Edds said that the county is actively working with organizations such as Rowan Helping Ministries to help them find avenues for funding such as ARPA.