Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
7 HILLS plans for sanctioned camp during pandemic.
7 Hills, other agencies awaiting funds to establish one-stop spot
FAYETTEVILLE — People experiencing homelessness are living at the site selected to become a sanctioned camp although officials are awaiting the money to establish it.
The camp is planned to be a one-stop spot during the covid-19 pandemic so its residents don’t have to travel to several locations for services and essentials.
7 Hills plans to set up the temporary camp on 13 acres south of the Walker Family Residential Community near 15th Street. Money awarded to the city from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act will help pay for the campsite.
The city’s Community Resources Division was notified in May local service providers would receive $436,285 from the act. 7 Hills Homeless Center will receive the largest amount at
$85,470. Six other providers will share about $112,000. The remaining money will go to a city-led program providing rent and bill assistance for residents. 7 Hills, a local nonprofit group working to provide the homeless population with basic needs, plans to provide all of the services clients will need at the site, said Jessica Andrews, 7 Hills chief executive officer. Resources will include new tents, tarps, sleeping bags, outdoor sanitation facilities and meal deliveries, she said.
Andrews estimated about 30 people are now living at the site. Until then, the staff is providing some services at their day center, where clients can come to pick up food, supplies, work with case managers and get information on other agencies services, Andrews said.
People have already started camping on the land, but they are still going several places to have their basic needs met, Andrews said. Campers will have resources in one place once the site is up and running.
City officials are waiting on the federal money, said Yolanda Fields, the city’s community resources director. Fields said paperwork for the money was turned in May 27. The money can be used once the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department releases it, she said.
Fields said the last she heard a technological issue was causing the delay.
“HUD is fantastic, but sometimes the wheels of the federal government turn very slowly,” Fields said.
7 Hills’ day center is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Friday during the pandemic, instead of its usual five days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its small size prevents clients and staff members from keeping a safe distance apart, so the center has adopted a drive-through style of providing services, Andrews said. Staff hand out clothes, food and mail through the windows. People use showers, restrooms and handwashing stations set up outside, she said.
“We’re trying very hard to make sure that, while the method of delivery is changing, the quality of the service is still here,” Andrews said.
Clients have missed connecting socially because of the change in methods, she said.
Kelly Holloway, 51, who has been living outside for about a year and a half, said the pandemic has made people depressed and angry. Holloway said his tent was destroyed and bike stolen. It’s harder now to find a place to cool off or get a shower with the day center’s limited operation, he said.
“That’s what the biggest complaint is out here,” Holloway said. “Two days a week for a shower, heck that’s what I’ve been trying to find — just a place to put a tent and sit where it’s close enough to the water where you can at least go sit down in it.”
The center is serving about the same number of clients as before the pandemic, but Andrews said winter worries her. The day center serves around 500 clients a month, according to the 7 Hills website.
The pandemic has only made staff more aware of the facility’s smallness and how that may affect them in the upcoming months, Andrews said.
“If this continues, how are we going to offer to warm people up and still follow social distancing guidelines?” she said.