Domestic violence shelter in Fayetteville seeks more room to serve

FAYETTEVILLE -- The Peace at Home Family Shelter plans to expand to meet the needs of a growing number of domestic violence survivors.

The shelter, founded in 1977, serves more than 1,000 families annually in Northwest Arkansas with a variety of programs, according to its website. Last year, 109 adults and 90 children stayed at the shelter. In addition, housing assistance was provided for 148 families.

More than 350 people received legal assistance for divorces, child custody cases or protection orders. More than 1,000 crisis calls came through the hotline.

The shelter wants to enlarge the building and construct a pet facility on an adjoining plot of about 4 acres that is owned by the city.

The land is part of a much larger tract of about 65 acres east of Lake Fayetteville that the city acquired in 1949.

The city sold 1.5 acres to Peace at Home in 2005 and wants to sell the additional land at the same rate of $20,000 an acre. The shelter opened its current building in 2008 with a dozen staff members and an annual budget of less than $800,000. Today, it has 35 employees and a more than $2.5 million budget, according to city documents.

Teresa Mills, the shelter's chief executive officer, said Peace at Home serves about double the number of people it did in 2008. In the past decade, services have shifted from primarily providing emergency shelter to offering housing programs, legal aid and free mental health counseling.

The shelter has space for about 50 residents at a time. Multiple staff members cram into a few office spaces -- Mills works out of a converted closet. Only a couple of service animals can be allowed because there isn't a pet area. Pets that can't stay with the families often are left in the unstable home situations.

"We typically have more people who are requesting shelter than we can accommodate on a daily basis," Mills said.

People seeking shelter when capacity is full can still get a place to stay at a hotel or apartment or with family members with expenses paid, Mills said. However, sometimes the risk to a victim or family is so high that refuge in a secure shelter is necessary, she said. The shelter ends up moving people, putting lower-risk residents in other accommodations.

"We could easily increase our daily capacity by 50%," Mills said.

The hope is to be able to comfortably shelter about 100 people, with families having their own units and bathrooms, she said.

The Fayetteville City Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution of intent to sell the land to Peace at Home. Nearby property owners will get letters in the mail. After that, a separate item will go before the council for the land transaction, City Attorney Kit Williams said.

The city has to undergo a two-step process for selling the land because a Fayetteville ordinance requires a public notice of intent to sell. The state constitution limits a city's ability to donate land, Williams said. The city can sell the land at a discounted rate in exchange for the services the nonprofit will provide to residents, but it likely couldn't give it away or sell at an extremely low price such as $1 an acre, he said.

Williams cited an attorney general opinion from a city land dispute 20 years ago over the Boys & Girls Club on Rupple Road.

In addition, the shelter wants to own the land that's now up for discussion.

The city doesn't have to put the land up for sale to the public. The point is to help Peace at Home continue to provide essential services for domestic violence survivors, not to make a profit, said Susan Norton, Mayor Lioneld Jordan's chief of staff.

"We really appreciate that not only do they provide temporary shelter with beds, but they're growing services, and it's more of a case management outfit these days for taking care of people's needs in every respect," she said. "It's their responsiveness to their clientele and understanding and being proactive about what people in these desperate circumstances need in order to have hope for the future."

The project is in its earliest stages of development and will likely take three to five years, Mills said. However, work on a separate building for pets could get underway soon.

The shelter hired an architect and has been talking with city planning staffers about the pet building in memory of Candy Clark, who died last year. Clark served on the Washington County Quorum Court and was an avid animal advocate who helped found what eventually became the Animal League of Washington County, a rescue nonprofit. She also served as the first director of the Humane Society of the Ozarks.

Clark's wife, Teddy Cardwell, has been on the Peace at Home board since 2014 and said Clark always wanted the shelter to have a place for clients to take their pets. Research shows the benefit pets bring to victims of domestic violence who are seeking refuge, and Clark frequently discussed the topic with Mills, Cardwell said.

The animal shelter will bear Clark's name. It will have separate areas for dogs, cats and small animals such as birds and ferrets. It will be able to house 10 dogs and eight to 12 cats with a common area for families to play with their pets.

Memorial gifts from friends, family members and organizations associated with Clark will primarily pay for the animal shelter construction, Mills said. A final cost estimate will depend on the exact spot the shelter is located on the land, considering factors such as drainage and where utilities will connect.

The board plans to launch a capital campaign for the overall project soon. It could be about a year before the expansion work begins, Mills said.

"The building is fantastic; it's beautiful. We've been here since 2008, so it's not even that old," she said. "I think we are just recognizing we need to add on to our existing footprint."