Where rows of cafeteria-style tables once met those entering Little Rock's day resource center for the homeless, there are now leather recliners and chairs positioned around small coffee tables.
Framed art hangs on the walls. People sit in groups, talking or reading. The lobby of the city-owned center called Jericho Way looks more like a living room ever since the nonprofit DePaul USA took over operation last week.
That's exactly what the center is meant to serve as for the thousands who come through its doors each year -- as well as a kitchen, a place to shower, store belongings and get assistance with employment, health care and housing.
"We all need that connection to our day, that place where we find comfort. That's what my hope for Jericho Way is," the center's new director, Elizabeth Greim, said at a "reopening" event Monday.
"It will be the place for someone that wakes up alongside the river or railroad track, who finds they are rolling out of a cot at the shelter. They can say, 'I need to go to the place that brings me comfort and makes me feel safe.' ... Everyone can call this place home," she said.
When the city opened the center at 3000 Confederate Blvd. in June 2013, officials envisioned contracting with a nonprofit to take over operations. Earlier this year, Little Rock entered into a contract with DePaul that started last week and runs through the end of 2015, with the option to renew on a yearly basis.
While the city still funds the center with help from North Little Rock, DePaul will now be able to leverage additional private funds from faith-based organizations, local businesses and others who sign up to help. It's the same model the agency uses in Macon, Ga., where it operates another day resource center for the homeless.
With the addition of Little Rock, DePaul USA now runs six projects in six states.
After DePaul officials and the city spoke Monday, William "Bud" Caudle approached Greim with watery eyes.
"I don't feel homeless when I'm here," he told her.
Caudle, 37, is a sound engineer and musician. Originally from Arkansas, he lived in Pensacola, Fla., for a while where -- as he tells it -- he "beached it and rode my motorcycle, had a great job, and was just living the life."
That's also where he started abusing drugs and his life fell apart.
Since January, he's been staying at the Little Rock Compassion Center. He met James McEntire in a local hospital psychiatric ward and later recognized him at the Compassion Center one night. Now they stick together, finding in each other the support they are missing from estranged family and friends.
When you don't have a permanent place to store belongings, it can be difficult to keep up with medication and other things, they explained. Jericho Way gives them somewhere to stay organized.
"I can sit, relax, read my book. I have an appointment on Wednesday and they will take me and pick me up," Caudle said.
The city provides free transportation from shelters and known homeless camps to the day resource center. At the center, people can wash their clothes, eat, shower, rest and meet with a caseworker. They can get help with obtaining their birth certificates and getting identification cards.
McEntire wants to find a local job. He's experienced in carpentry and welding, but most jobs he's found have been too far away.
"There's only so far I can go. These shoes aren't going to trek me too much farther as you can see," he said, raising his foot to show the sole of his work boot almost completely separated from the shoe.
Last year, people signed up 18,568 times to meet with a caseworker at the resource center, city records show. That doesn't reflect the number of individual clients, since a person often signs up more than once. In 2013 -- from June when the center opened through the end of that year -- clients had signed up 11,168 times.
DePaul is working toward expanding the services offered.
After meeting immediate needs and providing job training and assistance, the agency wants to work with hospitals and medical services to provide free health care screenings, said DePaul USA Executive Director Chuck Levesque.
Beyond that, they want to help clients find transitional and permanent housing.
"There's no way to pretend that every time someone comes in, that just because we changed the furniture, that now all is well, because it's not," Greim said when addressing the crowd of a few dozen people Monday. "All of us have things we have to deal with. I hope that this is the place we can help people deal with what's in front of them in a way that says we care about you."
"The idea of Jericho Way, the Good Samaritan on the side of the road, is it doesn't matter what faith you're from, it's about seeing the humanity in one another," she said, referencing the Bible story from which the center got its name. "You don't see the divide. The Samaritan sees what is the compassion of each human being. He brings the man to a place where he could find a safe haven -- the inn. This is the inn along Jericho Way."
Metro on 03/31/2015