Along the chain-link fence that surrounds the nondescript Downtown building, about a dozen or so people line the sidewalk, sitting in the shade from small trees or a tent.
Where they cluster, there’s minimal chit-chat — no debates of the time on this May afternoon featuring weather that hasn’t yet caused people to seek cooler surroundings.
For three days each week, the building within the fence provides brief refuge for the homeless and under-housed. It’s the Jacksonville Day Resource Center, the temperature-controlled facility that provides showers, laundry, computers and other basic amenities.
It’s been fully operational since October 2013, funded by a $70,000 Wells Fargo grant and $120,000 Community Development Block Grant.
The one-year pilot program was extended to present day through another $60,000 provided to the center’s fiscal agent, the Emergency Services & Homeless Coalition.
Now, though, it needs another $45,000 to keep it going until the end of the fiscal year in September, including through those brutal summer months.
Blocks away, City Council members took action Monday and Tuesday to ensure that, unanimously voting in three committees to provide the funding from interest earnings on old grants.
The building is owned by City Rescue Mission, which is providing it rent free. The money pays for two peer specialists, utilities and supplies for laundry and cleaning, said Dawn Gilman, Emergency Services CEO.
To date, the facility has served 600 people, mainly in Downtown.
The best outcomes, she said, have been with homeless veterans — 200 have been engaged, with about 50 finding housing and jobs.
Some wanted to see more from the service.
Council member Don Redman lamented that when he’s been to the center five or so times since it opened, he’s more often than not seen visitors “just sitting around watching movies.”
“That’s an issue as far as I am concerned,” he said Monday. “I just don’t see it doing what I hope it would it do.”
On Monday afternoon, near the 4 p.m. close of the facility, there were a handful of people inside watching an old Eddie Murphy cop film.
Tillis DeVaughn, the lone city employee who oversees operations the three days a week it’s open, said Redman’s concerns are a misconception.
“That’s an easy thing to say,” he said of Redman’s comments.
But before the TV is turned on, he said, there’s a chore checklist which patrons have to complete. Bathroom cleanup, laundry cleaned and folded, weeding the courtyard and perimeter. Some who sit for a few minutes are waiting to use showers or computers.
Gilman said the program’s board has looked into how frequently and what kind of movies should be shown. The noise, she said, in the past has been somewhat of a distraction to service providers who visit to provide outreach.
Partners like City Rescue Mission, the Veterans Administration and Sulzbacher Center have staff members there Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Since it opened almost two years ago, DeVaughn said it’s been “crazy in a good way.” People are being helped, guided to the right places.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, helping people from all levels,” DeVaughn said.
James Farris wasn’t so sure about the place when it opened. The center has helped the former homeless man on the path back to a home off Lane Avenue and a job that starts today with Edible Arrangements.
Gilman told council members during their discussion Monday the role the program plays, especially when it came to boosting hygiene.
While the Finance and Recreation, Community Development, Public Health and Safety committees Tuesday were approving the $45,000 to keep it open, people still were along the sidewalks outside the center. The gates leading inside were locked.
Gilman said the long-term future depends on the model for the center and what the city and stakeholders want it to be. If job-focused, she can see the private sector stepping up more. In other cities that have similar concepts, the public sector is the leading, most stable form of recurring funding.
The city, day center board and groups like the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment — better known as ICARE — are still determining the next steps.
If the full council approves the money next week, it will buy the program another few months.
Without funding and a plan, though, the gates could remain locked.
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