FORT SMITH - Organizers of a proposed homeless campus in Fort Smith have been scrounging and scraping for funds for the past 3 1/2 years and are close to having enough to buy and renovate a building for the campus.
City Homeless Coordinator Debbie Everly and Old Fort Homeless Coalition President Ken Pyle said last week that they are confident they will come up with commitments of $1.8 million by the end of September, the end of the federal fiscal year.
“We almost have enough money for the city’s OK to start our project,” Everly said.
Those funding commitments include more than $600,000 in federal Community Development Block Grantfunds that were allocated for the homeless campus over the past three years, said city Community Development Director Matt Jennings. However, the city cannot release those federal funds until it is assured organizers have the rest of the $1.8 million in commitments.
Organizers need $620,000 to buy the 127,000-square-foot former Riverside Furniture plant building on 7.25 acres at 301 S. E St. and $1.2 million to renovate the structure as part of the initial phase of the homeless campus.
The first phase calls for establishing a low-demand shelter for 75-80 homeless people, support space like a kennel for their pets and storage, offices for campus administrators and service providers, and facilities like a kitchen, showers, bathrooms and a laundry.
Pyle said “low demand” means the shelter will have very few limitations on whom it accepts.
A person can arrive at the campus drunk, though he can’t have alcohol with him, Pyle said, and can be high on drugs but can’t have drugs with him. No weapons are allowed, and anyone who acts violently will be kicked out.
“Other than that,” Pyle said, “we want you to have a safe place out from all the vulnerabilities and nastiness of living outdoors.”
Pyle said once the property is purchased, it will take two or three months to finish the design work, and six to nine months to renovate the building.
In addition to the block grant funds, the coalition has gotten approval for a $500,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. It also has gotten a commitment for a$200,000 in-kind equipment donation that Everly couldn’t elaborate on last week but said could be announced in the next month.
That leaves the coalition about $500,000 short in committed funding.
Everly said an announcement is expected on April 1 of a “generous” but, as yet undisclosed, gift that she hopes will go a long way in filling in the funding gap.
The coalition also entered into an agreement recently with fundraising consultant Hartsook Cos. of Kansas City, Mo., to help organize a local and regional fundraising campaign for capital and operating funds for Riverview Hope Campus, Everly said.
Everly and Pyle have been hitting the speaking circuit to explain the Riverview Hope Campus to the community and to generate donations and volunteers for the project.
Last week, they spoke to members of more than a dozen Fort Smith churches about the need and plans for the campus, and asked for ideas on how to run the campus feeding program because many of the churches run similar efforts.
Everly said Fort Smith areachurches all together provide seven meals a day - mostly lunches and suppers - to homeless people. Everly suggested that those groups consolidate their resources and devise a system for providing meals at Riverview Hope Campus.
She said she realized that it would be a change from the way the churches have been providing the meals for many years, and it may be hard for them to accept and adjust to a new system.
“You need to stop worrying about who is feeding,” she said. “We need to worry about who we are feeding.”
Everly said she will continue to meet with individuals and churches to get their ideas on feeding the homeless at the campus.
She said breakfasts probably will be provided by the Community Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army, which also feed the homeless and provide sheltering and other services. Fort Smith’s Salvation Army chapter has been providing services in the city for more than 100 years and the rescue mission for more than 30 years, the organizations say.
The Salvation Army had been planning to build a new facility and move onto the homeless campus, but those plans have changed.
Chapter commander Capt.Russell Clay said last week that there was no need to move and that the organization’s facilities on the north end of downtown are sufficient to provide its services to the community.
“We are not bursting at the seams where we need a [new] facility at this time,” he said.
He said the Salvation Army would continue to work with the homeless coalition to serve those in need.
Pyle said Riverview Hope Campus does not want to compete with or replace the Community Rescue Mission or Salvation Army but to provide services to homeless people who, for whatever reason, don’t want to use the other shelters.
The plan is to provide as many services as possible to help the homeless people in Fort Smith find and keep homes, Pyle said.
He said Fort Smith now has a 7 percent to 10 percent success rate in getting people out of homelessness, which to the government means keeping them off the streets and in homes for a year. In cities that have homeless campuses, he said, the success rate is 80 percent to 95 percent.
The difference, he said, is that physical, medical and mental-health services can be constantly available at the homeless campus so thehomeless can maintain and build on a recovery program.
Everly said several organizations have agreed to partner with the homeless coalition to offer services or otherwise support the campus.
Among them, she said, are Fort Smith Adult Education, Good Samaritan Clinic, Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance Center, Fort Smith, Camp Hope for Heroes, Crawford-Sebastian Community Development Council, Valley Behavioral Health Systems and the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
The Next Step Homeless Services, which offers a day room, meals and counseling services to the homeless, will move from its offices on North Sixth Street downtown and become the anchor tenant on the campus, Everly said.
Once the initial phase of the campus is completed, the homeless coalition wants to add two more elements. One is a 12-bed single-room occupancy section for people from the low-demand shelter who are progressing away from homelessness but are not ready to live on their own.
Another future element, called Safe Haven, would be a 25-bed shelter for homeless people who are chronically mentally ill.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 15 on 03/23/2014