Opportunity House officially opens

The ribbon was cut on Opportunity House, Pine Bluff’s new day room, but amidst the celebration on Thursday night there was already an urgency for the facility to become something more.

The day room, located in the old First Ward School on East Sixth Avenue, had a soft opening in early April, but some 70 city officials, faith-based individuals and those who helped shepherd the project to completion jammed into the spotless auditorium to celebrate the official opening.

“You did an amazing job,” Charles Levesque, director of Depaul USA, the nonprofit agency that will run the facility, said to Chris Taylor, assistant director of the day room. “Mayor, congratulations on a beautiful building, and congratulations on a vision that has come to fruition. This facility shows you are a caring community.”

Two-plus years ago, the facility, a brainchild of Mayor Shirley Washington, was destined to be a homeless shelter, but a lack of financing forced organizers to open it as a part-time day room — open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 a.m. until noon — to allow people to eat breakfast, wash clothes, shower and get help with their documents and finding jobs and housing.

In the short time Taylor has been in charge, individuals are being helped, sometimes in substantial ways.

Levesque relayed the story of a man who became homeless after his wife died. The man didn’t know anything about their finances and quickly found himself without any place to live. He showed up at Opportunity House and was helped by Melissa Brook, the facility’s case worker, Levesque said.

Brook determined that the man was eligible for VA benefits and was actually owed $7,000. Brook also plugged him into the benefits such as food and lodging he could get from Neighbor to Neighbor and the Salvation Army and then got him on food stamps.

“He is now living in public housing near his daughter in DeWitt,” Levesque said to applause. “He is now housed. He is now not homeless.”

One part of that picture will, however, soon disappear. The Salvation Army announced last week that they are closing their shelter in Pine Bluff, leaving the city without one.

Washington has said that puts the city in a bind, one that creates more urgency in pushing Opportunity House to advance to the point where it can take in people who are experiencing homelessness. Getting to that point, however, will require considerably more money than is now being committed to the project.

Currently, the city is giving Opportunity House $100,000. Levesque said the annual budget is currently about $170,000. A five-day-a-week day center will cost roughly $225,000 a year, he said, and a shelter will cost at least $500,000 a year.

Washington thanked Cynthia Anderson, who worked in the mayor’s office and watched over the project from beginning to end and also was chiefly responsible for successfully getting a $250,000 grant from Lowe’s that allowed the purchase of several pieces of equipment for the center.

“We talk about a worker bee, she’s a worker bee,” Washington said of Anderson.

The facility has had a full renovation in many areas, as well as a facelift throughout. Visitors toured the buildings, admiring its new floors, paint, furnishings and revamped rooms that will at some point, it is hoped, allow people to spend the night. The cost of the improvements is in the neighborhood of $1.3 million, with roughly half of that coming from federal dollars.

Taylor said he was pleased with the results.

“I grew up in Pine Bluff, and I want to see our town improve,” Taylor said. “Opportunity House is something better for our town.”

Washington thanked many of those who attended, including architect Ron Woods; Larry Matthews, director of the Economic and Community Development department; Donald Sampson, chairman of the South Arkansas Continuum of Care; and Michael Gilliard, Public Works and Housing coordinator.

Depaul USA operates 25 programs in 10 states and has helped some 5,400 people. Levesque said his agency, which has six other subdivisions in Europe, follows the precepts set by St. Vincent De Paul, a 17th century priest who devoted his life to helping the poor, the sick and the homeless. Levesque said people of all faiths can relate to providing such assistance.

“We all share that,” he said. “We have to do good things well. With Opportunity House, you’re taking people off the street and giving them a chance.”

Taylor was asked what the public could do to help make Opportunity House a success. His answer was that monetary donations would be appreciated, but also breakfast foods, fruits and vegetables as well as soap, shampoo and other hygiene supplies.

Rev. Judy Rudd, pastor at Lakeside Methodist Church, opened the proceedings with a prayer of thanksgiving for the new day room.

“This is a day of celebration,” she said, her arms held high. “Let this be the beginning of a new day, a promised land of hope for our brothers and sisters.”