Seven Hills Homeless Center moves day center amid refocus effort

Volunteers work together Saturday to unload items at Seven Hills Homeless Center’s new day center at 1832 S. School Ave. in Fayetteville.
Volunteers work together Saturday to unload items at Seven Hills Homeless Center’s new day center at 1832 S. School Ave. in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- One of the area's primary homeless assistance organizations has moved its day center.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Fred George-Hiatt (left) and Kevin Renner work together Saturday to move the front desk at the center’s former day center location on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard while helping move items to the center’s new day center at 1832 S. School Ave. in Fayetteville.

Dozens of volunteers and staff members with Seven Hills Homeless Center helped move furniture, clothing and supplies Saturday morning from the old building off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to a pair of buildings on South School Avenue. The new place includes a pantry, kitchen, offices and common areas, all within 1,000 more square feet than the old one, CEO Billy Rader said.

"There's a need for a much larger facility in the next couple of years," Rader said, adding the new day center could be a springboard for an eventual overnight shelter, a mental health care program and other services. "It's pretty awesome."

As Rader spoke, volunteers milled around him in the old day center's main room carrying chairs and file cabinets, boxes and desks. Outside they loaded trailers and pick-up trucks with cheerful energy as their breath steamed in the sub-freezing air.

Many of the helpers were young Mormon missionaries living around Northwest Arkansas.

"One of the things we do on our mission is just service for everyone," said Sister Norris -- missionaries go by "elder" or "sister" during their missions. Giving to others is a deeply meaningful task that brings people closer to Jesus' example, Norris added: "You kind of forget yourself, and you get to help people and worry about their problems."

The day center was at its former location since 2008, proving meals, showers and clothing, Internet access and counseling to help almost 2,000 clients a year find jobs and eventually secure their own housing. The center complemented Seven Hills' housing complex on Huntsville Road for about 60 people and a veteran rent assistance program.

Near the end of 2013, Seven Hills bought the 2-acre site on School with plans to move there rent-free. But financial troubles slowed the transition.

The center in 2014 drew down a $247,000 city endowment dedicated to the center's work, mostly to pay almost $180,000 in overdue payroll taxes in 2013 and 2014 that a former employee neglected to pay. Last year, the organization bowed out of a Housing and Urban Development grant program for housing assistance, saying it was regrouping and prioritizing its work. Fayetteville stepped in to take on the $414,000 grant.

Meanwhile, roughly 2,500 people in Benton and Washington counties are living on the streets or temporarily with friends or family at any one time, many of them children, according to the University of Arkansas' Community and Family Institute's homeless survey released last year. The number has steadily gone up in the past several years.

Several homeless people during the January survey said more shelters and a more diverse set of services are essential.

"There's twice as many campers as you think," said Cybil Baker, 28, who had left her mother's home because of domestic abuse. She called for more shelters that don't separate families and said for more help to pay for medications and IDs would go a long way.

Rader said the work by the city and other groups such as the Salvation Army helps make the overall push against homelessness a more connected team effort. Seven Hills will be a healthier organization by branching out from federal money into aid local foundations and corporations, he said.

"The way we were providing services needed to be revamped," Rader added. "We need to not just do it alone."

The move is an example of that teamwork, Rader. The land's owner, listed in Washington County records as Monroe Eaton LLC, sold the land last month, said Tom Terminella, a developer and real estate broker involved in the sale. The homeless center was suddenly in danger of being homeless, so Terminella and other companies in town donated around $40,000 or $50,000 to fix up the South School site.

The work included fixing the floors, replacing roofs and other mechanical work, Terminella said Saturday. Rader said it was two or three months of work that got done in a matter of weeks.

"They've got a good foundation," Terminella said. "It all worked out good, and they've got a great piece of real estate."

Now Seven Hills is putting together its long-term strategic plan for how it will provide its services, Rader said. It's also fundraising, particularly for $150,000 to cover the rest of the fiscal year that ends this summer, according to a press release from the center. That plan should be ready by April, the release stated.

"Anybody can contribute towards the shelter, to the Seven Hills effort," Terminella said. "The Terminella family and myself, we hope to be more involved with these folks in the future."

NW News on 01/24/2016

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