Business

Caraker praises mission, says it deserves voice on 7th

By Bill Moss, Published: November 7, 2014

Two weeks after publicly raising questions about the Hendersonville Rescue Mission's potential to impede redevelopment of Seventh Avenue, City Councilman Steve Caraker very publicly reversed course, calling the facility a first class operation that deserves a seat on the advisory board guiding  redevelopment.

"One of the things that's given me a lot of concern in the past is what his clientele does between morning and evening," Caraker said during a City Council meeting Thursday night. "Boy was I wrong. They've got a GED program, a health program, they've got a gym. They've got all kinds of things going on down there for clientele."
"One of the things Rev. McMinn said to me is nobody ever came across and invited us to participate, and I said I'm going to try to correct that right now," Caraker added before recommending that the council add a rescue mission seat to the Seventh Avenue Advisory Committee. CEO Anthony McMinn or his designee "could give us a perspective on their issues, what they deal with," the councilman added.
The council unanimously endorsed the proposal, adding the seat for a rescue mission appointee. It made no immediate appointment.
During a meeting of the Seventh Avenue Advisory Committee on Oct. 20, Caraker read a constituent's observations about the mission, saying it was "the elephant in the room" the council needed to address as it debated redevelopment.
The mission "is a magnet for troubled souls," the constituent told Caraker in an email. "Without any mandatory structure during the day many of these folks wander the streets, panhandle, sit on city benches or at the library all day until the mission allows them in again."

Caraker, who has been the liaison for Seventh Avenue redevelopment and a strong advocate for revival of the economically depressed strip, said on Thursday night that the council when it formed the advisory committee had "tried to get a pretty broad brush with business owners and things like that but I think we missed somebody and I'd like to correct it."
After meeting with McMinn and touring the facility, Caraker said he saw that "it's not a shoddy operation at all. It's first class."
McMinn, he said, has reached out to Joseph's Ministry, a new day center scheduled to open on Seventh Avenue, the Storehouse and other nonprofits that serve the homeless and the needy to talk about joining forces.
"I found out that the Hendersonville Rescue Mission has been used as a model for other agencies in other states," he said. "It's very impressive. I think we need to give them a voice."