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Rescue Mission called 'elephant in room' for redevelopment

As city officials, an advisory committee and the Hendersonville City Council put a sharper focus on redevelopment of Seventh Avenue, the presence of homeless men and women is gaining a higher profile.

The City Council on Thursday will take up a 60-day moratorium day centers and shelters for homeless people. The Hendersonville Rescue Mission has started a day center two days a week for men and women who stay overnight at the shelter, and Joseph's Ministry, a new center offering job training, laundry facilities and other services for homeless or job-seeking people, plans to open at the old Louis Williams & Sons property.
How a concentration of homeless men and women co-exists with the city's ambitious plans for redevelopment of the blighted area could be the next big challenge for the City Council. A constituent, in an email to City Councilman Steve Caraker, called the issue the "elephant in the room" as ideas — and spending — are not debated.
Last week, during a Seventh Avenue Advisory Committee meeting, Caraker read from an email he received from a Hendersonville resident who had read coverage in the Times-News about Seventh Avenue redevelopment.
"Most everyone I know doesn't believe Seventh Avenue will ever become economically successful until the elephant in the room is addressed: the Rescue Mission," the email said. The writer said, "It needs to be relocated."
"And I'm not endorsing this," Caraker said.
"No one wants to say it publicly because it sounds uncaring and heartless, but the recent murder of a Hendersonville resident by a violent homeless person should be a wakeup call," the email said. "Operating under the guise of religion should not make them any less responsible for harboring dangerous individuals. The mission (which I supported and donated to) is a magnet for troubled souls. ... 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. ... There must be a better way for our city to manage and help the homeless."
Caraker described the letter as "food for thought" and suggested the city act on it.
"We need to very sensitively approach Rev. McMinn and develop some kind of day program to keep these individuals," he said. "They work on them spiritually, they clean their bodies, they wash their clothes. ... It's got to be a very delicate subject. I disagree with most everything she's ever sent me but I agree with this."


'Completely uninformed'

Anthony McMinn, the CEO of the rescue mission, was disappointed that the shelter had been singled out.
"Obviously whoever made that statement is completely uninformed of what we do at the Hendersonville Rescue Mission," he said. "They really don't know the policies and procedures that we operate with. We help people move their lives forward. Our programs are to help them become stable, become productive citizens of the community. Whoever wrote this had no idea about crack addiction, they had no idea about meth addiction, they had no idea about mental health issues. And I don't care what city this person has been in, he's never dealt with homeless people and homeless needs."
As for moving, McMinn said: "We've got 77 beds in that shelter. Where are they going to move us to? Are they going to move us to Main Street? Are they going to move us to Laurel Park? Are they going to move us to Kenmure. Are they going to move us to Champion Hills?
"We're down there because the need is there," he added. "I don't care what city you go into there is a place where the social economic part of the community needs a helping hand, and we're the helping hand. We've been that lighthouse in the storm for many people in their lives that people can come get their lives together."


'A dual-mix area'

Caraker, who has been the City Council's Seventh Avenue liaison for years and is its strongest promoter, said he disagrees with the idea that the Rescue Mission should be moved. He thinks it can co-exist with a changing Seventh Avenue and needs to.
"If we're trying to revive Seventh Avenue I think one of the challenges going forward is to kind of embrace that activity and work with it and make it better," he said. "You can't deny his track record of being successful. I know it's grown and expanded. I'm sure he's helped a lot of people but we need to look at the gap in middle of day and see if there's a way to provide more structure."
Caraker suggested that all the parties could meet to discuss ways to help the homeless people find jobs or an activity during the day.
"I was going to engage the mission and see if they would be willing to give some kind of structure, to keep them from kind of wandering around," he said. "I wasn't going to do anything as far as an ordinance. I wanted to see if city staff could engage Rev. McMinn and make some suggestions and help him along."
McMinn said the shelter does hold the men and women accountable and does what it can to help them find jobs. Some significant number of displaced men and women are likely to walk up and down Seventh Avenue whether the mission or Joseph's Ministry is there or not.
"People don't really get Seventh Avenue," he said. "It's a dual-mix area. You've got the residential and you've got the businesses trying to come together. It's like I tell them. Seventh Avenue is never going to be Main Street. It's not." Addiction and alcoholism "was there before we got there."
Caraker said he planned to talk to city staff and McMinn about a solution.
"You're going to see at the next council meeting a moratorium on rescue missions or that kinds of use for a while till we can get a handle on it," he said. "I don't think anybody on the council wants Seventh Avenue to be known as Rescue Mission Central. We're trying to do a redevelopment project there. We're trying to blend the new with the existing."