SPRINGDALE -- The City Council tonight is expected to consider a measure that will give it more options when dealing with housing facilities for people transitioning from prison into the community.
Springdale has one such program, Phoenix NWA, which houses 67 men at 703 N. Thompson St.
Returning Home, a nonprofit agency, provides programming for these men and many others, including counseling, life skills and job opportunities. Locally, the center is known as Returning Home, but the state lists it as Phoenix NWA.
Ernest Cate, the city attorney, said the requirement would add correctional transitional housing as an allowed conditional use of a building in a certain commercial zone.
No residents spoke June 7 during a public hearing regarding the zoning change, Cate said.
Returning Home officials declined to comment.
Returning Home falls into a neighborhood commercial zone, according to its current business license with the city.
Cate said its allowed use of location and building falls under a broad category that reads, "cultural, recreational and health facilities which serve the residents of the community. These uses are typically public in nature, but may also be private."
The city, if the measure passes, would add a specific conditional use for transitional housing to its zoning code. Cate said the new language matches that of the Arkansas Division of Correction.
"Transitional housing is an Arkansas Department of Correction Division of Community Corrections licensed facility that provides housing for one or more offenders who have either been transferred or paroled from the Department of Correction by the parole board or placed on probation by a circuit or district court," the city's code would read. "An offender's home or the residence of an offender's family member shall not be considered a transitional housing facility for purposes of this use unit."
"It actually allows us more flexibility in how we deal with the place the more conditions we put on it," Cate said. "It must meet certain conditions, and if it doesn't, the conditional use can be pulled."
Returning Home has an active operating permit in good standing from the Arkansas Department of Correction, said Cindy Murphy, a department spokeswoman.
Cate said the city thinks Returning Home has a great location. It's not near residential areas or schools, but it is close to a poultry plant and bus stops. The men use nearby laundromats and shop in a convenience store.
The center's nonconforming use under the new definition would be considered "grandfathered in," Cate said. If the center moves or expands, the city would have to approve the new status.
"It's important that we support programs that help people get a new start after being released back into our communities," said Mayor Doug Sprouse. "It's also good for our employers who are scrambling for workers in an area that has such low unemployment."
The Springdale Police Department since June 2021 has responded to 33 calls for service at Returning Home, said Capt. Jeff Taylor, a department spokesman.
These calls represent when police officers went to Returning Home. Each call could be an incident that happened there or an incident that happened somewhere else that a resident filed from the center, Taylor said.
Full details of the calls are not known, but eight involved some type of theft, one for a report of a sexual assault and one involving suicide.
In addition to the 1-acre property and Returning Home facility fronting on Thompson, the agency owns another acre and building at the back of the lot, according to the Washington County Assessor's Office.