Don't call it a shelter.
That was the message from Mayor Shirley Washington on Tuesday morning as she spoke to 50-60 volunteers who went to the old First Ward School building to start turning it into what is being called Opportunity House.
"Yes, it will be a place where you can get a meal," she said, standing on the floor of what was the school's auditorium. "Yes, it will be a place where you can get clothing. Yes, it will be a place where you can get shelter for the night. But I also see this as a place where we will give people an opportunity to reach their dreams and goals. We want it to be more than a shelter. We want it to be a place of transformation."
The day was a busy one for the old school, which the city purchased from the Pine Bluff School District for $10,000. Some 30 paid volunteers from various Lowe's stores in Central Arkansas and almost as many Pine Bluff-area volunteers were on hand as part of the cleanup day for the building. The two groups spread out through the building, hauling out boxes and bags of trash, stacking school chairs outside and getting rid of other outdated equipment.
Sometimes the items didn't get close to the big dumpster that had been positioned at the back of the school grounds.
"Are y'all getting rid of those chairs?" a man from across the street hollered as one after another volunteer hauled armloads of chairs out of the front of the building on Sixth Avenue.
"Yes, sir," a blue T-shirt-clad Lowe's volunteer said. "Come and get them."
"I heard you all had some football helmets," said another man who had just driven up in a car.
"Yes, we do," another volunteer responded. "Follow me."
The group from Lowe's was there as part of a $250,000 grant the company gave to Pine Bluff in recognition of the company's centennial. Pine Bluff was the only city in the state to receive the grant, and out of 2,200 applications received by the company, only 100 were fulfilled.
Organizing the volunteers was Don Mallard, a Lowe's district manager who oversees most of the stores in Arkansas and who brought in the workers from many of those locations.
Mallard said he was pleased that Pine Bluff was able to get the money.
"This grant is the largest that we do as a company," he said. "So it's pretty cool that we got to do it here."
Mallard said Pine Bluff "has been good" to the Lowe's store in the city and that the CEO of Lowe's, Marvin Ellison, looks for ways to help local communities.
"He believes in giving back," Mallard said. "It's hope, you know. It's betterment. It's just a step in the right direction. If we can do something like this for our community, that's a good thing. Pine Bluff received $250,000 for this project. They can do a lot of stuff for $250,000."
Music from the 1980s blared from various speakers as workers cleared the old classrooms of whatever had been left behind. As the morning wore on, the only thing left in many of the rooms was the shine left behind by a wet mop.
Washington, sounding like a cheerleader at times as she spoke, said having a shelter was something she has been thinking about for several years. Before she ran for office the first time in 2016, she recognized the need for such a facility. Then, later, she began driving around the city, looking for a good location for one.
"That was more than four years ago," she said, adding that she settled on the First Ward School because of its location and "strong bones." She said the building is sturdy, and the heating and air-conditioning systems are fairly new, as is the roof.
"It's not too big, but it's big enough to meet our needs," Washington said of the almost 20,000-square-foot building, which was built in 1949.
The campus hasn't been a public school for several years now, but it has been used as recently as four years ago when there was an after-school program located there. Washington told the gathering that she was excited to see the cleanup effort start, and she thanked the local volunteers as well as those from Lowe's for helping out.
"You have come from all over," Washington said, "and we thank you for that. I can't thank you enough."
She said she didn't want to take up any more time talking because the group had gathered, not to hear her speak, but to "What?" she asked before saying and spelling out the answer. "Work. W O R K!"
Cynthia Anderson, the mayor's chief of staff, has said the facility will be designed to provide temporary housing for as many as 50 men, which is where the most need is. While at the facility, the men will be able to take classes and get training to be able to return to being productive citizens, she said.
Ryan Watley, CEO of Go Forward Pine Bluff, was going from room to room, loading up a dolly with sacks of trash and rolling them out to the dumpster. He said he supported the idea of having a shelter in Pine Bluff.
"It fills a void," he said. "There's not a shelter of this kind in Pine Bluff, and it's needed. The mayor's vision is that this will lift people and become sustainable. I think that is a very worthy cause."
Juanita Currie, who operates a soup kitchen at St. Peter Catholic Church and volunteers at Neighbor to Neighbor, a food pantry, agreed.
"I think it is needed," she said of the shelter. "It's very much needed. It will be an asset to our community."
Washington said she would be able to do much of the needed work on the building with the Lowe's grant, as well as $800,000 from the federal government that the city gets to fight homelessness. The money, she said, will mainly be used to upgrade the kitchen and the bathrooms in the building.
William Fells, an assistant to the mayor, said much of what was being cleared out of the school will be tossed but that if there is furniture or other equipment with value, the city would look for churches and other organizations that might want the items.
