Once a week in Gastonia, about a dozen homeless people step into a mobile trailer outside Mt. Zion Restoration Church to scrub and rinse themselves in a long, hot shower.
On a cold, blustery morning, Justin Hosey stepped outside the trailer smiling as he dried his hair with a fresh towel.
"It was nice and warm, and clean. I feel a lot better," he said.
Karla Hall handed a towel back to volunteers, and said it was the first hot shower she’d had in days.
"It made me feel so much better," she said. "It woke me up a little bit. I feel clean. Don’t feel nasty."
Volunteers didn’t just help people get themselves clean. They collected dirty clothes from their guests and took them to another trailer stocked with washing machines and dryers, and washed the clothing for free.
Gaston County began regularly using these shower and laundry trailers six weeks ago. They were made possible by the county’s Community Support Services division.
Its staff wrote the proposal, got the project funded and found churches like this one willing to host the trailers.
But the division's 11 positions are about to be eliminated under Gaston County’s new manager, Matt Rhoten.
Costs and benefits
Rhoten took over as county manager in August. He's been working for the county for a decade, having started in 2014 as an intern.
He told WFAE that part of his mission is to run the county efficiently.
"I have a deep sense of responsibility to our citizens — that we make sure that we’re giving them a good return on investment," he said. "We feel like as an organization that it’s our responsibility to provide the best service possible to create the best outcomes possible for the lowest cost."
The Community Support Services division is less than two years old. The previous manager created it in January 2023 to coordinate homeless outreach and opioid response efforts, and manage the county’s domestic violence shelter, veterans services office and public transit.
Rhoten said he didn’t think the new division made much of a difference. He wants the county to operate as it did before, when those programs and efforts were managed separately by personnel in other departments like Social Services and Public Health.
He says if it all goes to plan, residents "shouldn’t see anything different," and he’ll save taxpayers $1.4 million.
Filling in the gaps
The announcement rattled some community advocates, like Pastor Rodney Freeman of Mt. Zion Restoration Church.
"Well, my thing is now, OK, what are you going to do with that money?" he asked.
Standing beside the shower and laundry trailers, he said he had a good relationship with division staff members who are now losing their jobs.
"So the thing is now, where do people go for resources?" Freeman said.
The county manager said someone from Public Health will take on homeless outreach and opioid response efforts, though he’s still deciding who. Nevertheless, Freeman said he’s not too worried about the cuts.
"All we got to do is come together and we can fill that gap in and not miss a beat," he said.
In August, the Salvation Army closed the county’s only homeless shelter. Freeman said the closure and this announcement means his church and other groups may have to step up.
"I’m not even worried about it whatsoever," he said. "Matter of fact, I’m excited about it, because it's going to provide more opportunities, more exposure, and we can be able to help more people."
His church is already making plans to build a permanent shower, laundry and homeless resource center where the trailers are now parked. They hope to break ground in the new year.
