Work to begin on homeless shelter
A homeless shelter is long overdue for Pine Bluff, according to the person who is helping bring such a facility into existence.
Cynthia Anderson, new chief of staff for Mayor Shirley Washington, is eyeing Tuesday as the day when things start moving toward the mayor’s goal — have a place in the city where the homeless can find temporary refuge.
“We want the facility to support people with nowhere else to go, engage them with services that can change their lives and offer opportunities for greater stability and empowerment.
That’s important to building a stronger community,” said William Fells, an assistant to the mayor.
On Tuesday, volunteers will descend on the old First Ward School, 1300 East Fifth Ave., and with the help of a $250,000 grant from Lowe’s, begin cleaning out the old school and making way for future renovations on what will be known as Opportunity House.
To get this far, the city applied for and received one of 100 grants from Lowe’s, which created an “impact” program as a way to celebrate its centennial.
Pine Bluff was the only city in the state to receive one of the grants, which attracted 2,200 applications from across the country, according to the company. Lowe’s employees and others will be on hand on Tuesday to help with the clean-up.
While plans for the project are in their infancy, Anderson said the city needs such a shelter now.
Opportunity House will be designed to house up to 50 men because that is where the need is greatest, she said. The press release from Lowe’s stated 14% of men in Pine Bluff are homeless.
“This will be transitional housing for males who are down on their luck,” Anderson said. “This temporary shelter is designed to help them get back on their feet. And to help them do that, we will have classes to help them learn life skills, and return to being productive citizens and to permanent housing.”
Anderson said that at some point, the facility might also accept families.
The Lowe’s grant will also be used to buy appliances, bedding and office equipment, she said. Anderson said she would like to see the facility open sometime in 2022, although there is much to do between now and then.
“We have asked for RFQs [request for quotes] from architecture firms,” she said.
Once an architect has been chosen and that work starts, officials will have a better understanding of the magnitude of the cost of creating and operating a
homeless shelter, she said.
“We are still very early in this process,” she said.
Anderson and her husband moved back to her hometown in February after being gone since the late 1980s. A month later, she was hired as the mayor’s chief of staff.
Her career has been in business management and corporate real estate. That work has included the development of partnerships with community organizations, experience that seems well-suited for pulling together such a wide-ranging project as a homeless shelter.
Asked if she thought the creation of Opportunity House would be difficult, she said, “No.”
“I don’t think this will be challenging at all,” Anderson said. “In the big scheme of things, I think this is doable, quite doable. And I think it is long past overdue for this community.”
Anderson said the goal is to build and operate the homeless shelter without the use of tax dollars.
“Fundraising will be the chief component of this project’s creation,” she said. “That will be the same for the center itself. We will rely on fundraising dollars to keep it operational and not rely, per se, on taxpayer dollars. We want it to be self-sufficient.”