News

Another homeless center in the works on Seventh Avenue

By Bill Moss, Published: June 23, 2014

A new ministry serving homeless adults and youth is set to open later this year on Seventh Avenue.

Joseph's Ministry, a nonprofit organization started by First United Methodist Church, is working on plans to open the center at 701 Seventh Ave. East. The facility will serve homeless adults until early afternoon and homeless children and teenagers after school, offering a place to do homework and laundry and receive other services.
"We want everybody to come and know what we're doing," said Sandy Cavanaugh, one of the organizers. "I'm right now gathering volunteers to help with the cleanup, fixup and painting and we're going to set a date very soon for a luncheon" at the site to introduce neighbors and others to the ministry.
"We're going to be serving homeless and others who don't have the services they need just to live," she said. The ministry is coordinating with other providers who already serves meal or provide staples, including First United Methodist and First Baptist churches and the Storehouse, which is a block away.
"A lot of them have asked if they can come in and feed," she said. "Some of the people that are feeding the homeless, they'll come and do their feeding there. A church on Cherry Street has a meal every Saturday and they're going to start one on Sunday."
As for security, "We're working on that," Cavanaugh said. "We will have security."
Although the Hendersonville Rescue Mission recently opened its own day center for homeless men and women, Joseph's Ministry won't duplicate the mission's work, Cavanaugh said.
"This is going to provide things that the others don't," she said. "They don't have a laundry. We're going to have a lot more showers and we're going to have mailboxes."
James Mast, who relocated here from Houston, bought the old Louis Williams & Son property last August for $225,000. He has been renting the 3,200-square-foot rear section to the ministry since January. The organization has not yet signed a lease, Mast said.
The new center for the homeless comes as shopkeepers, landowners and residents are reacting to the City Council's revived efforts to spark redevelopment on Seventh Avenue. At the first meeting of the newly formed Seventh Avenue Advisory Committee last week, members said if food pantries and services for the homeless continue to proliferate, there will be little incentive for new commercial development. When board members asked whether the city could block the new center and impose a moratorium on such uses, City Manager John Connet responded that it could not.
"There's nothing in the ordinance right now that prohibits that use," he said. "If it's permitted in that zone, by state law we have to write the permit."
The only action the city could take would be prospective — rewriting the zoning code to put homeless day centers a certain distance from one another. The advisory board voted to ask the City Council to explore that option, although it would not block the new ministry.
Cavanaugh said Joseph's Ministry is sensitive to neighbors' fear that a homeless center will invite loitering. But she said the center could help cut down on loitering. It plans to allow day laborers to wait inside for contractors and other employers who would pick them up for work.

Joseph's Ministry

Day center for homeless adults and youth
701 Seventh Ave. East
• A 3,168-square-foot space at the rear of building would contain a kitchen, men's and women's showers, washers and dryers, interview rooms, classroom.
• Services would include hot meals, transportation, mailboxes, haircuts.
• Classes and life skill help would include English as a second language, job interview coaching, personal grooming and clothing maintenance, GED classes, computer basics, cooking and nutrition.
• The ministry plans to coordinate with public health and social services agencies, the V.A., mental health and vocational rehab organizations for screening interviews.
• The ministry would serve adults from morning until early afternoon and would serve homeless children in the afternoon with homework help and other needs.
• Renovation cost: $59,600.
Sources: Hendersonville Planning Department, Joseph's Ministry.