Planned shelter becoming day center
Do an online search of “Pine Bluff” and “homeless” and several stories pop up about Mayor Shirley Washington’s plan to open a homeless shelter in Pine Bluff.
But such a facility is not what the renovated building that was the old First Ward School is turning into, and it is unclear when or if a homeless shelter will ever become a reality.
What was planned as a fulltime homeless shelter that would have accommodated dozens of people will now operate as a part-time day center — open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7 in the morning until noon. The day center will offer breakfast, a snack lunch, showers, washers and dryers as well as other services.
But the idea of offering homeless people a temporary shelter is a nonstarter, at least for the time being, because of a lack of funding.
Asked if she was disappointed that one of her hallmark goals of creating a shelter was unfulfilled, Washington said “to a point.”
“But at the same time, we will be able to offer these other services,” she said. “I wish we could do it all on day one, but until we get the funding right, this level of service will be helpful. The first thing people in need ask me is ‘Can I get a hot meal and a shower?’ And some of the women ask if they can wash laundry.”
The idea behind Opportunity House was the need to address a soaring homeless population in Pine Bluff that, according to statistics cited by Washington, amounted to 14% of the male population. The initial goal was to be able to house as many as 50 men, but because a federal grant was used, the facility would have to accommodate women as well. In the end, it was decided that fewer people would be able to stay at the facility, and while women could also stay there,
they would be quickly moved to other facilities.
The city asked for proposals for potential shelter operators and selected Depaul USA, a nonprofit that operates a day center in Little Rock and in seven other states. When Depaul representatives made their pitch to Washington and others in July 2022, it was stated that about $500,000 would be available to run the facility, with $200,000 coming from the city and $300,000 raised through other means.
In a recent interview, Washington said the city had only ever promised $100,000 a year, but that it had also now agreed to pay the utility bills other than electricity for the building at 1300 East Fifth Ave. That assessment appears to run counter to the comments made by Washington at the time of the meeting with Depaul officials.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Washington said in 2022 when Depaul made its presentation. “I frequently hear from citizens asking when are we going to get a shelter. Some of the people who need the service are returning from penal institutions and need to get back on their feet.”
At that same meeting, James Evans-Hammond, director of Jericho Way, Depaul’s operation in Little Rock, went through the particulars of a phase one budget that included such items as personnel, supplies, food and administrative expenses totaling $540,694 for the first year and a maximum client load of 30 individuals. In all, there would be eight full-time employees, including one case worker and five part-time employees, he said.
That dollar amount was slightly above what the city wanted to spend, but Washington said at the time that she felt good that the two sides were close.
“As a committee, we said if the cost to operate the facility was more than $500,000, we couldn’t do it, that it would probably be beyond our means. So we still have some negotiating to do, and we’re comfortable with where we are,” Washington said.
The initial money behind the effort has been significant. The project received a $250,000 grant from Lowe’s, based on an application for a homeless shelter. And, according to a 2021 story in The Commercial, on top of the Lowe’s grant, the city has had about $800,000 in federal grant money earmarked for the project, Washington has said, but only about half of that could be used on building renovations, which focused on the bathrooms and kitchen.
In another story in The Commercial in 2021, Cynthia Anderson, Washington’s point person on the project, said the mayor didn’t want to rely on tax dollars to keep the facility operating.
“Fundraising will be the chief component of this project’s creation,” Anderson said at the time. “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.”
Asked why the facility wasn’t going to open as a shelter as promised, Washington shifted the blame to Depaul, saying they had been unable to find more grant money. (Washington was asked for more details on how much money has been spent on the Pine Bluff project to date, but those numbers were not immediately forthcoming.) She said that perhaps in a year or two, more money would be available and the day center could be turned into a homeless shelter.
Charles Levesque, executive director of the Chicago-based Depaul USA, said he was unsure how much it would cost to operate such a full-time shelter in Pine Bluff but that it would be considerably more than $100,000, which is why the facility is opening in a much-diminished capacity as a day center.
“We would have liked more than $100,000,” he said. “As so often happens, your hopes are dashed when it comes to dealing with government entities and financing. Yes, we were hoping for more.”
Asked about the $500,000 figure, Levesque said that number is likely an estimate of what a full-time day center in Pine Bluff might run annually.
“That’s about what it has cost us to do day centers in Little Rock and other places, so we’re relying on our experience there,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it would cost that much for a five-day-aweek day center in Pine Bluff — we likely could do it for less — but it’s an estimate.”
He said his operation would be looking for additional money and that moving beyond even a part-time day center would require more commitment from the city as well.
Asked what a full-time homeless shelter would cost, Levesque said he didn’t know. “We have not budgeted for a shelter, so we have no figure for that,” he said. “Our goal is to get the day room up to full time and then move to a shelter.”
Levesque said Depaul had already hired a director, a case manager and a parttime dining room operator.
“We are ready to go,” he said. “We’re already paying these employees. We are just waiting on the city.”