FORT SMITH -- A campus that has been in development for more than five years is set to open today to offer shelter and services to the homeless and near homeless.
The Riverview Hope Campus is opening in a renovated furniture factory building at 301 S. E St. in Fort Smith and will begin admitting people who sleep in makeshift tents, live from meal to meal, or who are on the verge of losing their homes because they can't pay rent or utilities.
Campus director Chris Joannides, who spent most of Thursday seeing to last-minute details, said he would be satisfied if 25 to 30 homeless people showed up on the first day. A few showed up early Thursday and agreed to help disassemble furniture boxes and then did their laundry, Joannides said.
"I'm expecting a pretty good turnout," he said.
Campus board president Greg Pair said Riverview Hope Campus will begin serving meals today and taking in those who want to sleep in the 75-bed, low-demand shelter. Those going through intake today will have access to showers, laundry and meals from the full-service kitchen as well as a bed in a safe environment.
Services aimed at helping the homeless turn their lives around through life skill development will begin Monday. Joannides said several people have signed up already for adult education classes.
Providing many of those services will be a small army of volunteers. Many are volunteering through their churches but many are simply individuals who want to help a good cause, Pair said.
The campus is designed to help the homeless by consolidating an array of services in one location just south of downtown Fort Smith.
But Pair said the campus also will welcome those who are not homeless but are having trouble paying utility bills or rent or who don't have enough to eat. They can go to the campus and get a meal and take advantage of the variety of services offered, such as continuing education classes, and parenting, finances, job skill training and even cooking classes.
"To me the real advantage is not to just provide a place for the homeless to gather but ... for access to job training, health care and a safe place to be," Mayor Sandy Sanders said.
Construction took about a year on the $4 million project to renovate 35,000 square feet of the 127,000-square-foot former Riverside Furniture building. The Old Fort Homeless Coalition that led development of the project acquired the money for the building and its renovation over five years through grants and private donations.
The four targets in helping the homeless are employment, education, housing and health, Joannides said during a tour of the campus last summer.
The largest area of the campus is the low-demand shelter, which will admit anyone who doesn't have alcohol or drugs and is not violent. People will have access to sleeping mats, secure storage for their possessions, a kennel for pets, food, a shower, a bathroom, a barber, a dentist and doctors.
Mercy Hospital opened its $350,000 clinic at the campus Aug. 1 to provide free medical treatment and medication and will help clients sign up for services such as Medicaid. Among other things, doctors will help stabilize people with mental illnesses so caseworkers in other areas of the campus can begin to help them learn skills to re-enter society.
A 2,300-square-foot community room will have cubicles for agencies to provide services to meet with clients. Among them are Mercy's homeless outreach program, the Crawford-Sebastian Community Development Council, Fort Smith Adult Education Center, Department of Veterans Affairs, St. Anne's Society for assistance with utility bills and rent, Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance Center, and the Dream Center church volunteer organization.
A cafeteria has new equipment for cooking, refrigeration, serving, storage and cleaning. It will have the capacity to serve three meals a day to as many as 160 people.
The campus also will have large spaces for classrooms and a library, Joannides said.
NW News on 09/29/2017