FORT SMITH -- A coalition has been working for three years to develop a campus to consolidate services for the homeless in the Fort Smith area, and while it has made strides, the opening of the campus is still at least a year away.
The 26-member Old Fort Homeless Coalition plans to open what's being called Riverview Hope Campus in the spring 2016, President Ken Pyle said after a coalition meeting Friday.
He said that by the end of February, the coalition hopes to have the $2.9 million in cash and pledges to open the first phase of Riverview Hope Campus. With plans and design work done, construction would begin around July and take about eight months to complete.
"It sounds like forever, but December 2014 sounded like a long way, too, a couple of years ago," he said.
Fort Smith Homeless Programs Director Debbie Everly told coalition members at the meeting that the fundraising total was $20,000 short of $2 million.
She said she was happy that the project was nearing its goal, but she tempered her satisfaction with a sense of urgency for the area's homeless.
"I hate for the people to be outside for another cold winter," she said.
Momentum for the project is building, Everly said. Interest in and support for the campus are strong in the community.
Earlier this month, the Griffin family of Fort Smith announced it was donating $100,000 to the coalition for the Riverview Hope Campus.
"Fort Smith's future depends not only on continued business development but also providing the highest level of care for all its residents," Rick Griffin of Griffin Properties LLC said in a news release.
Everly told coalition members that she had received two more pledged donations this month totaling $30,000. She also said District 9 state Sen. Bruce Holland, R-Greenwood, obtained $10,000 from the state General Improvement Fund for the campus.
The coalition could hear in January or February whether it will receive requested grants totaling $695,000 from the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, Pyle said.
"We think our project is exactly where the funds were intended to go to fill some gaps," Pyle said.
So far, the coalition has received a $500,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank in Dallas, $813,273 in private gifts from foundations and in-kind donations, and $603,441 in Community Development Block Grant funds from the city of Fort Smith.
City Community Development Director Matt Jennings said earlier this year that the funds have been allocated but will not be released to the coalition until the coalition shows that it has the entire $2.9 million in hand or pledged.
A statement in the coalition's fundraising campaign Help Within Reach said it will cost $620,000 to purchase the vacant 127,000-square-foot Riverside Furniture factory building at 301 S. E St. Another $2.25 million will be needed for site work, renovation of 35,000 square feet of the building, to initiate the first phase of the campus and to meet the estimated $350,000 first-year operating cost.
Several organizations have signed up to provide services on the campus. Everly announced the latest at Friday's meeting. Mercy Hospital has signed a letter of intent to open a clinic on the campus and to commit a minimum of $350,000 to help with the renovation cost, she said.
The coalition and hospital are working on formal announcements, she said.
The other organizations that have signed memoranda of understanding are Fort Smith Adult Education, Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance Center, Crawford-Sebastian Community Development Council, Fort Smith Housing Authority, Next Step Homeless Services, River Valley Christian Life Corp., Good Samaritan Clinic and the Crisis Intervention Center.
The organizations will provide an assortment of services that homeless people need to help them reconnect with society. Each organization will supply its expertise or passion to meet the challenge of helping the homeless, Pyle said.
"You have to meet the people where they are, needs are very diverse and everyone is slightly different," he said.
From visiting homeless campuses across the country, Everly said she saw how efficient it was to have one location where a homeless person could get an array of services rather than spend time and energy traveling all over town to take advantage of available services.
The first phase of Riverview Hope Campus will consist of a low-demand shelter where 75-80 chronically homeless people can get meals, a safe place to sleep, showers and other services. It will have a cafeteria, commercial kitchen, showers, laundry, classrooms, clinic examination rooms, counseling rooms, barbershop, kennels for pets, bulk storage, personal storage and a worship center.
Low-demand means the shelter will have few limitations on who it accepts. A person can arrive at the campus drunk or high on drugs, Pyle said, but can't have alcohol or drugs with him at the time. No weapons will be allowed, and anyone who acts violently will be kicked out.
The coalition hopes to develop two additional phases of the homeless campus in the future. One is a 12 single-room occupancy apartment as transitional housing, which could cost $700,000 to start. The third phase would be a 25-bed facility to be called Safe Haven that would provide appropriate care for chronically homeless people needing mental-health services. It would cost an estimated $330,000 to initiate.
Everly told the coalition members that a new Riverview Hope Campus website, riverviewhopecampus.org, went online around Thanksgiving. So far, she said, the coalition has received two online donations.
She also said the coalition is participating in the AmazonSmile program. Under the program, according to the program website, when a customer shops on AmazonSmile, smile.amazon.com, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5 percent of the price of the customer's eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by the customer.
Metro on 12/25/2014