After a year and a half of work, recommendations from a homelessness task force initiated by Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb include creating a “small-house village” for transitional housing, developing a regional “access hub” and expanding the city’s homeless assistance team.
The main recommendations shared during Monday’s afternoon city council session were split into four categories: building a comprehensive housing strategy, making assistance easier to access through the regional hub, improving coordination across health services and making community responses consistent.
“We know that compassion and accountability can coexist,” Cobb said during the presentation. “The goal is not simply to manage homelessness. The goal is to reduce it.”
The 21-member task force included city stakeholders in housing, healthcare, faith, finances and social services, as well as people with lived experience being without a home or in unstable housing.
The report listed the city’s biggest challenges as affordable housing, a difficult-to-navigate service system and transportation barriers.
The Blue Ridge Continuum of Care reported a 3.1% increase in homelessness in 2026, according to its most recent Point in Time Report. It said the numbers have stabilized over the past three years, after seeing 54% and 20% increases in homelessness in 2023 and 2024.
Cobb said during Monday’s meeting that the latest study on housing in Roanoke shows close to a deficit of 5,000 housing units. According to the presentation, 35% of city households are cost-burdened, meaning that individuals spend 30% or more of their income on rent or mortgage. The report cites a 63% increase in fair market rent for one-bedroom housing in the past six years.
The task force, Cobb said, was split into four work groups that focused on different sectors of the homelessness issue, and invited representatives from the four groups to speak during Monday’s meeting.
Task force member Jennifer Huffman, senior vice president of Solutions Banking at Atlantic Union Bank, spoke during the meeting on housing and economic security. She said sometimes individuals qualify for a housing voucher, but there are no available units for them.
Within building a comprehensive housing strategy, one subgroup recommends conducting an updated housing analysis, an affordable housing incentive package, piloting a small-house village for transitional housing and increasing the city’s land bank capacity to create more housing opportunities.
No other specifics were discussed or made available on Monday regarding the small-house villages.
Councilman Peter Volosin said after the presentation that homelessness is a regional issue but that the city’s regional partners “are unfortunately not helping us” when it comes to putting services in place. He said about 40% of the city’s population that lacks housing actually comes from other places in the region. He said a small-house village should be a first priority to help people regain stability.
Lee Clark, a task force member and chief executive officer of the Rescue Mission of Roanoke, said what stood out to him the most during listening sessions was a comment made that the city is “resource rich but connection poor.” The Rescue Mission is one of the city’s homeless shelters that offers resources like laundry, meals and overnight beds.
Clark said the group recommends expanding transportation services for those experiencing homelessness and developing a homelessness prevention initiative. It’s difficult for those experiencing homelessness to get around Roanoke to access resources, he said.
Task force member Cynthia Morrow, the health district director for Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts, discussed the option of a respite program for those with health needs who need extra care, especially after stays in the hospital. Gaps in care coordination and complex health systems are something that community health workers can help people navigate, she said.
Valerie Brown, task force member and executive director of the Greater Williamson Road Business Association, said she has heard that individuals, especially around Williamson Road, are using spigots in homeowners’ backyards to clean themselves and their clothing. She suggested the city expand its police response to be more robust outside of downtown. Another task force recommendation is for the city to fully enforce its no camping law downtown — and to expand it citywide.
Councilman Phazhon Nash suggested the city look into a partnership with the laundromats along Williamson Road to provide prepaid cards to individuals.
Volosin said during his comments that he does not see the city “enforcing its way out” of the problem, and that those experiencing homelessness do need a place to exist. Vice Mayor Terry McGuire agreed on enforcement and also acknowledged that in Southeast Roanoke, many homeowners have safety concerns that he said should be recognized.
The presentation noted programs the city has had in place that are working. The Blue Ridge Continuum of Care was noted as successful, along with the STAR Community Response Initiative program, through which police and service partners work with people in encampments to connect them to assistance. Clark did recommend the STAR program be expanded further. The report also noted the Downtown Ambassadors program, a team of eight people working over 300 hours of downtown service each week, as successful.
The presentation also calls for an implementation committee to refine the proposed actions the task force came up with. It recommended engaging with residents and those with lived experience and identifying responsible parties, cost and progress measures for the project moving forward.
Cobb said he and the task force have met with City Manager Valmarie Turner for a “reality check” on what’s feasible and to talk about the cost of the recommendations made. He said the regional hub and the small-house villages pilot program are two things he thinks the city can move on quickly, hopefully within one year.
When creating a regional hub, he said, the new RAM House Jain Care Center will be taken into account, as that facility has recently reopened with numerous new services available under one roof. “We don’t want to duplicate things,” Cobb said. He did not say where the new hub might be located or what it might include.
He said the city will host two community meetings to discuss options. The report will be posted for the public on the city’s website soon, he said. It was not included in the agenda packet for Monday’s meeting.
The goal is to get to a point where homelessness, when it occurs, is “rare, brief and nonrecurring,” Cobb said.
