It took two ribbon cuttings, but Opportunity House is now what it was supposed to be when it was first advertised.
The facility was the brainchild of Mayor Shirley Washington. But as with more than a few of Washington’s projects, the devilish details eluded her. In the end, the under-funded Opportunity House opened as a part-time day room where someone could get breakfast, wash up and maybe get help with their life path. All beneficial to those in need, to be sure, but an overnight shelter it was not.
The situation worsened when the beleaguered Salvation Army closed its overnight shelter last year, leaving the city with zero places for someone to seek that type of relief.
But that has all changed. Last week, a good crowd gathered to cut another ribbon for the facility, which will now fill the overnight void 24-7. The difference is the city’s commitment to funding it. Mayor Vivian Flowers and a re-enthused City Council delivered a check for $200,000 to the facility at the open house, and there’s a commitment of another $400,000 for next year and a like amount for the year after.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The facility is being operated by Depaul USA, which has a worldwide presence. Kudos to them for continuing to run Opportunity House, even when the original amount promised by the city never materialized. Now, with a little wind in their sails, grants are starting to roll in.
Keeping Opportunity House going will require those grants and more local philanthropy, which is why efforts to support the facility will continue to expand. One idea is to tie an annual fundraising event to World Homeless Day on Oct. 10.
For now, though, the seed money is there to make this thing go. With federal cutbacks in various food and sustenance programs under the Trump Administration, chances are that the need for such a facility will be more critical than ever.
As Flowers noted as she spoke last week, while driving around Pine Bluff, she has seen unhoused people who have had to turn to abandoned houses and homeless encampments for places to spend the night.
“We have work to do,” she said.