Opportunity House plan needed quickly

It had already been a long day for many, what with the Chamber’s Business Expo that had already taken place. But there, filling all of the 70-something seats at the newly christened Opportunity House, were those who came in the evening to support the cause. Some had played key roles in the facility’s creation and some were simply eager to see the project go forward. Enthusiasm was abundant.

This is Mayor Shirley Washington’s baby, to be sure. She said she had witnessed those who were experiencing homelessness and vowed that if she became mayor, she would address that need.

As a former educator, she was perhaps more keenly aware of the vacant school buildings around town. One that she had her eye on was the old First Ward School on East Sixth Avenue. She said she visited it on cold days and on scorching hot days. Like an underground fortress, the building’s temperature never seemed to vary much. That told her it was well insulated.

So she set about buying it, giving the state Education Department around $10,000 for it.

With the help of Cynthia Anderson, the mayor’s right hand in these matters, Washington secured a $250,000 grant from Lowe’s to help get things started on turning the once vibrant building into a newly renovated vibrant building.

The real work was yet to begin. That took lots of planning and thinking and rethinking and a patient architect. First, the homeless shelter was going to serve men only – that population is what makes up most of the homeless in Pine Bluff, it is said – but it was discovered that women have to be served as well. More planning, more rethinking.

And now it’s open, and compared to the roughed up school that it once was, this is a beautiful thing to behold.

The problem is that while the effort was being put into getting the building renovated in such a way that it could be a homeless shelter, the financing to actually create such a shelter has fallen short.

For now, the city is giving Depaul USA, a nonprofit outfit that has locations in 10 states and in a number of countries, $100,000 and paying the utilities other than electricity. That would appear to be just enough to get the doors open.

For now, Opportunity House is a day room, open three days a week from 7 until noon, feeding them breakfast and giving them a place to wash up, as well as get a leg up on life. We can imagine that $100,000 will about pay for the salaries of the small staff, but doubt it will be enough to pay for the first egg that is cracked for breakfast, nor the electric bill in July when the AC is running constantly.

Complicating matters is the announcement that the Salvation Army will be closing its own shelter in just a few weeks. There will still be a staff presence at the Salvation Army office in Pine Bluff, but as far as offering a place to stay for someone in need, that service will be mostly gone.

That means that the city will be left without a shelter, which is a tragic situation given that the reason Opportunity House was created in the first place was to handle the abundance of homelessness in the city.

Where will those people go? There won’t be any real place but it’s assumed they will filter out into the community and find their way into one of the many abandoned houses and structures in Pine Bluff. Absolutely not good.

We realize that no one can snap their fingers and make hundreds of thousands of dollars appear. But for Opportunity House to move from a day room to a homeless shelter, it will take upwards of $500,000, according to Depaul USA. And not just once but every year.

For now, the city can revel a bit in the fact the doors to Opportunity House are now open. But going forward and quickly, a serious discussion about the future of the facility and how that facility will be maintained will have to be had. Too much effort has been put into its creation for the whole thing to fail, and now Pine Bluff needs it more than ever.