Homeless Center In the Old Armory Building...Brilliant!

[Bill Hoff]

Has there been any confirmation that this is actually being considered at this time?

Yes.

From tonight's Jacksonville.com

Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown is considering putting a day center for homeless people at the edge of the downtown Springfield neighborhood, a suggestion that has area residents â€" and the local councilman who wasn’t told about it â€" up in arms.

Setting up such a center has long been a goal of Brown, who promised during the campaign that establishing one would be a priority for his administration.

Brown reiterated that pledge six months ago during a meeting of a coalition of local churches, saying he wanted the site to be open by the end of the year. Plans call for a facility that would contain no beds but would have access to service providers, showers, mailboxes and the like.

Now, discussion has centered on one of two sites the city is looking at: The old armory building at the intersection of State and Market streets, adjacent to the area’s dog park and across the street from the Veterans Affairs’ Vet Center.

Brown’s office didn’t make any announcement, but word leaked out to residents Tuesday morning and they called City Councilman Johnny Gaffney, who represents the district. He said he had no idea the armory was being considered for the day center and called Brown’s office for confirmation.

“I was very disappointed to hear something like this through the grapevine,” Gaffney said. He blamed the mayor’s staff for being less than transparent.

“On something that’s as critical as this is and as sensitive as this is,” he said, “you should at least speak with the district councilperson.”

The idea is “incomprehensible,” said JoAnn Tredennick, vice president of the Springfield Preservation and Revitalization Council.

“We and a lot of other people have invested a lot of energy, time, tears and money to get where we’ve gotten, with very little help from the city,” she said. “To have the city kick us in the teeth like this is repulsive.”

The city has not settled on the armory, mayoral spokesman Dave DeCamp said, although it appears to be just one of two sites being considered. The other: The Miller Machinery building at 601 E. Church St.


Article continues:
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-10-16/story/possible-site-homeless-day-center-raises-ire-springfield-neighbors#comment-659078

[Bridges]

The city has not settled on the armory, mayoral spokesman Dave DeCamp said, although it appears to be just one of two sites being considered. The other: The Miller Machinery building at 601 E. Church St.

That site, however, is smaller than the armory â€" 13,000 square feet vs. 80,000 â€" and is not owned by the city. The armory, built in 1915, is.

The Miller Machinery seems like a way more ideal location.  Talk about concentration of services for the Homeless.  Sulzbacher is right next door with a health clinic and support services. 

Was the Armory ever looked at for the Supervisor of Elections?  I drove around the back tonight, and I think there is 1 loading dock.  It's on the bus route, has the parking.  It's not single story though.  And I've never seen inside to know about the ability to put another loading dock.

[Noone]

The city has not settled on the armory, mayoral spokesman Dave DeCamp said, although it appears to be just one of two sites being considered. The other: The Miller Machinery building at 601 E. Church St.

That site, however, is smaller than the armory â€" 13,000 square feet vs. 80,000 â€" and is not owned by the city. The armory, built in 1915, is.

The Miller Machinery seems like a way more ideal location.  Talk about concentration of services for the Homeless.  Sulzbacher is right next door with a health clinic and support services. 

The Miller Machinery building at 601 East Church St. And Catherine St. built in 1915 is currently being demolished.

[thelakelander]

^Right.  Unless they plan on constructing a tent city.

[CityLife]

Jacksonville....where we have the world's ugliest $350 million building and the world's most architecturally significant homeless shelter. Where we build a nice new children's playground and dog park, and then put a homeless center next to it. Where the TU, Don Shea, and DIA board members go on the record saying Jacksonville's historic neighborhoods can revitalize downtown and on the same day word leaks that the mayor is considering driving a wedge between 1 of the 3 with a homeless center.

Just when you think things are starting to make sense and are headed in the right direction...

[thelakelander]

I'm still a fan of looking in a centralized but fairly isolated area like the Dennis Street industrial district.  Hundreds of thousands of obsolete and underutilized brick warehouse buildings buffered by McCoys Creek, the railroad and I-95.

[CityLife]

Lake, that idea is so good that it has no chance in this town. I remember when we biked it, how ideal it seemed for homeless services. The area is a complete ghost town. Almost seemed more like a movie set than real life.

Is it close enough to downtown to be able to serve as a day center?

[simms3]

Any pictures of the Miller Machinery building?  Oh...N/M that was the whole building we discussed and noone took pictures of a week ago.  Yep...gone, so I guess that means Brown is now down to just the Armory?  And 80,000 SF?  That might break a record for largest homeless shelter.  Love this quote as it pretty much sums it up:

The idea is “incomprehensible,” said JoAnn Tredennick, vice president of the Springfield Preservation and Revitalization Council.

“We and a lot of other people have invested a lot of energy, time, tears and money to get where we’ve gotten, with very little help from the city,” she said. “To have the city kick us in the teeth like this is repulsive.”

[thelakelander]

CityLife, Dennis Street is literally on the other side of I-95 from the Prime Osborn.  If JTA moves forward with the JRTC, it will be within walking distance of the city's largest transit hub.

[Cheshire Cat]

Ennis, you have been saying this for a good while and I agree with you.  You may remember that when Glorious was in office we tried floating this idea more than once but never got traction with it.  If the mayors office is indeed considering the day center, they need to seriously look at a long term solution to the needs of the homeless and I don't think the Armory is it.  The city also needs to think about the fact that we are also taking in Clay county homeless because they have no real center.  In fact, some of the services in that county and other areas send them onto Jacksonville.  It would be nice if other counties would step up to the plate on this.

[ronchamblin]

I suspect that the goal of any community would be to expend reasonable resources to care for the needy, the unfortunate, the mentally ill, and the homeless.  However, as a community succeeds in this effort, more unfortunates might arrive from other cities and states.  And because of this influx, it would be reasonable to expect a city engaging in aggressive solutions for the needy would receive state and federal funds for the purpose. 

Surely, the great men in our federal government, if any remain who are able to think clearly about issues, will find it possible to obtain a tiny fraction of the funds used to bomb and kill innocents in foreign lands, funds used to make war continually on some unfortunates, and route these funds to assist communities attempting to help our unfortunate citizens who are in need of it. 

Any new or expanded center for the homeless or needy will act as a draw, inviting needy individuals from other cities and states.  The degree to which a facility involves programs to rehabilitate, treat for drugs, provide limited medical care, counseling, and limited training so that people can begin to function normally in society, will determine the degree to which the needy population will increase and overload any facilities in the area.  A facility can have a stagnant, holding function, or a progressive rehabilitative function, the former being cheaper, but the latter resulting in decreasing or stabilizing the needy population.

The warehouse district, suggested by Ennis, will permit expansion, as there are many empty warehouses adjacent to each other.   

If the closer facility is to be used, near Market and State, would it draw the “campers” from Hemming Park?  Would we see a decrease in “undesirables” in the core of the city, and therefore a decrease in panhandling?  I suspect that the users of any new facility near State and Market will continue to visit Hemming and the core, although with less frequency, and will continue to panhandle.

I prefer the warehouse district, which is further from the core, as it offers a chance to expand the facility.  Expansion will be necessary unless there is a way of limiting the individuals who use the facilities. 
 
If there is enough federal and state money, then the warehouse area facilities could be expanded to accommodate programs to treat mental illness, drug addiction, health issues, etc, with the result that real progress would be made with many of the individuals using the facilities.  This ideal situation would result in long term progress with the needy, allowing many to return to productive and normal lives. 

If we simply have a day center, with minimal facilities, there will not be any long-term benefits to the overall population of the needy, and therefore the number of needy in the area will remain constant, or increase, because no programs would exist to allow recovery and a return to being a productive citizen. 

Of course, I suppose we could simply house the individuals about whom we’ve talked, allowing a comfortable stability in their population.  In this way, we will always have plenty of odd individuals to point and gawk at, talk about, and measure ourselves against.  We need people who are unfortunate and down so that we can see just how well off we are.  We need people who are mentally deficient so that we can imagine how superior and smart we are.  Therefore, we need to stabilize with our current needy population.  It’s fun to have a few individuals in the city core who, by their antics, give us the experience and pleasure of visiting a zoo.

[dougskiles]

The perfect location:


But they better hurry so that they can beat the expiration of the mobility fee moratorium.

[If_I_Loved_you]

I'm still a fan of looking in a centralized but fairly isolated area like the Dennis Street industrial district.  Hundreds of thousands of obsolete and underutilized brick warehouse buildings buffered by McCoys Creek, the railroad and I-95.

The Dennis Street industrial district is not the place for a Homeless Center! Unless a local church group was involved or the good hard working people of the neighborhoods got behind it. It's as if you are trying to hide the homeless? I know the Dennis Street area and that isn't a good place to put this center. Besides with all the railroad action around these warehouses it would be down right stupid.  If it was up to me and it was between the Old Armory and Dennis St. Industrial Center I would go with the Old Armory.

[thelakelander]

Miller Machinery Building as of two weeks ago.

[Bridges]

Miller Machinery Building as of two weeks ago.

How are we supposed to believe that the Mayor's office put even the slightest bit of thought into the logistics and location of a drop-in day center, if one of their 2 proposed locations has been under demolition for 2 weeks?