City board approves purchase of church
The Hot Springs Board of Directors approved the $750,000 purchase of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church Wednesday night, providing the “one-stop shop” the city said it needs to lift people out of poverty.
The purchase agreement the board adopted on a 6-1 vote was the culmination of four years of discussion about a community resource center for nonprofits serving at-risk people, but some city directors questioned the wisdom of buying a facility before a plan to operate it was in place.
“Why are we in such a rush to push this project through using these funds when we have a little over a year?” District 4 Director Dudley Webb, referring to the 2024 deadline to commit American Rescue Plan Act funds the city is using to acquire the 109 Hobson Ave. campus, asked City Manager Bill Burrough.
“Would it not be in our best interest to not rush this project so we get everything right? I want to see this project be successful. In order to be successful, we have to make sure we implement everything right on the front end.”
Burrough said church leaders may find another buyer if the board didn’t act soon. He also raised the possibility of Congress clawing back ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, which would jeopardize the $1.2 million the city has yet to commit from its $11.3 million allocation.
An amendment to the Fire Grants and Safety Act recouping uncommitted SLFRF funds got 47 votes in the Senate in April. U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., voted for the amendment. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was one of four senators who didn’t vote.
Burrough said the Arkansas Municipal League advised cities to commit their ARPA allocations as soon as possible.
District 3 Director Marcia-Dobbs Smith was the only one of Webb’s colleagues to sup
port his motion to table the item until after the board’s Aug. 5 midyear planning session. She later cast the lone vote opposing the purchase, which the enabling resolution conditioned on obtaining proper approvals from the planning commission. The more than 1-acre parcel is zoned medium/high density residential, with a commercially zoned corridor to the west.
“As much as I love our underserved populations and the least among us, for this location, at this time, I would have to vote no,” she said after the board heard from about 20 people during more than two hours of public commentary.
Burrough acknowledged the unusual circumstances of Wednesday’s vote.
“It’s one of the only items I think I’ve ever brought the board where we didn’t have a really concrete plan, but I’ve got faith it’s going to come in speaking with as many people and nonprofits as I have,” he said.
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church outreach coordinator Sally Carder told the board having a facility is a prerequisite for a plan.
“We’ve been talking about a plan for years and years, but the first thing you have to do before you can put a plan in place is to have a building,” she said. “No nonprofit is going to apply to do anything until they know where they’re going to be.”
Representatives from nonprofits that work with homeless and at-risk people made up a large contingent of the crowd that spilled out of board chambers and into the City Hall lobby Wednesday. Those that came to the podium were asked if they would commit to operating the center.
“I don’t need written commitments,” Carder, responding to Dobbs-Smith, said. “I’ve got a group of churches and volunteers back here and a commitment of agencies who said we’re going to come alongside you.”
She envisions agencies using Prince of Peace as a satellite office, where different services are provided on different days.
“Nobody is moving their program,” she told the board. “We’ll have a director there, an agency who oversees it. Those agencies are not going to get rid of their buildings and move over there, but they’re going to be there at certain times. There’s going to be caseworkers that will sit down with these folks and work out a plan.”
The city said Jackson House’s feeding program could be the first service provided at the church. It was one of two providers that responded to the city’s September solicitation for a resource center operator. The city said the proposal was incomplete, but that was before a location had been selected.
Executive Director Janie Smith told the board Wednesday that Jackson House could write a proposal specific to Prince of Peace, one that would leverage the emergency assistance provider’s network of 500 volunteers and numerous agency partners.
Ouachita Children Youth and Family Services, which is adjacent to the church, submitted the other response to the city’s request for proposals. Its entry noted the availability of the church.
“With all homeless programs operating in the same area where the neighborhood is already comfortable with OCYFS, there should not be any negative feedback from the surrounding neighborhood,” the October submittal said.
Burrough asked why subsequent to its proposal naming the church as a possible location, OCYFS had raised security concerns about the resource center being across the street.
“What has changed?” he asked Executive Director Ashley Thompson.
She said security is a constant concern.
“Our standards are very strict, and we take them very seriously,” she told the board. “That was based on security issues we’ll have no matter who comes in. If you choose a senior center or something like that, it’s going to have the same questions. What is it going to look like if there’s a new population coming in against the children’s center next door?”
She said OCYFS will submit another proposal when the city reopens the RFP process. The city said the more than $2 million in annual operating costs OCYFS proposed for an emergency and overnight shelter in October was cost prohibitive.
Others in the neighborhood also had concerns. Linda Funderburk said the area had improved since she bought several homes there in 2018 but worried that a resource center and the people it serves could undo those gains. She said many of her neighbors live on the brink.
“It’s a very fragile neighborhood,” she told the board. “These are people who don’t need a homeless shelter, but they’re not that far above it. We don’t want to hurt people to help people. I think we need facilities. I just don’t know if this is exactly the right place to put that.”