Close to forty representatives from area nonprofit and charitable organizations gathered on Thursday to discuss the possibility of opening a homeless shelter in Brown County. The main focus of the discussion was a re-purpose of the county owned juvenile detention center on Houston Street in Brownwood that will soon be vacated for the department to be housed in the former TYC Ron Jackson Unit II building.
Juvenile probation officer James Williams began sharing the idea with several people in the community and set up the meeting on Thursday with larger than anticipated interest.
Williams said that one proposed use of the detention facility by the county has been for a storage facility. He told those at the meeting a story about how the idea to instead turn the juvenile detention center facility into a homeless shelter struck him a few weeks ago.
“What I have noticed more and more in town is that there is a guy on the corner with a sign that says ‘homeless, will work for food,’” Williams said. “It was like, well hold on a minute, I just left a place that has 96 beds and we are about to store filing cabinets in it. That made absolutely no sense to me.”
Although Williams made the initial pitch for the concept of a homeless shelter, he looked to other organization leaders to play a role in researching the possibility and viability of this project.
“The idea is, I’ve talked to (County Judge) Ray West and he thinks it is a great idea too, to try and get a group together to look at a way to use this for maybe a homeless shelter as opposed to a place to store files,” Williams said. “Ray is convinced that the county would convey it over to a nonprofit, however that needs to be done. I really think it could be used pretty quick.”
Angela Bostick, Executive Director for Good Samaritan Ministries, said that there is an obvious need for a homeless shelter based on what she and other nonprofit leaders see in the community. She also commented that many in the community have interest in the concept based on Thursday’s meeting and feedback she received. She said all that is left to identify is the will to make it happen.
“Is there a will?” Bostick asked. “Do we have the will to put in the work, the hard work, the hard decisions that need to be made? It would have to have a foundation, and we would have to have rules and regulations; we want to do everything right. “
Bostick said that Thursday’s meeting will be just a first step to research and see if it is a viable solution for the homeless in Brown County, but want to keep open other possibilities as well.
“The first step is to look at this facility that is being so generously made available perhaps, and see would it work, is it a viable thing and if it’s not and since we have this much interest, do we look at something else,” Bostick said. “We can go ahead and take that step that we know has needed to be done for a long time and do something. Whether it be a homeless shelter as we visualize in our mind, does it need to be transitional housing where its more long term and we invest more in people’s lives, do training and building them up and help them into permanency. Those are decisions where we would need to meet and talk about and make decisions outside of right here today. It is obviously going to be a long-term thing.”
Bostick also said that the concept of a homeless or transitional shelter, to her, will be for those in need in Brown County, and organizers will want to work to set up a system to help the local homeless population and not draw homeless from other areas.
“We will need to address this as we move forward, that this is not something that will try to bring people in from the Metroplex,” Bostick said. “These people exist here, they are residents of this county and so we are not seeking to bring poor people or homeless people into our county. We simply want to take care of them, we want to minister to them and be the Christian community that we are and live up to those standards.”
Several nonprofit leaders mentioned that they identify homeless families and individuals on a regular basis through the Salvation Army, Good Samaritan Ministries, local schools, the hospital, and the Family Services Center.
Williams said that there are two wings of cells in the facility that could be fitted as overnight rooms for homeless with some modification. The facility also has old living quarters where the sheriff used to live and has had multiple uses over the years. Williams said that the majority of areas where the cells are located need repairs. The property includes the building and 13 acres.
Nonprofit leaders said that they are going to use Thursday’s meeting as a starting point and are going to continue to research the viability of making the building a homeless shelter. They stated that they will look at homeless shelters in other communities, research the type of organization or foundation that will need to be formed to operate such a facility, look at costs, and research any available grants.
