Shelter faces loss of current facility

CROSS (Community Religious Outreach Social Services), the local homeless shelter which opened in December 2008, is in danger of losing its facility at a time when the closure of the Sanford manufacturing plant has put even more people out of work, and director and board chairman Carl Bailey is looking at both short-term and long-term solutions.

"We're stranded, we're strapped, and we don't know what to do," said Bailey on Thursday during a discussion with Bedford County Mayor Eugene Ray and Shelbyville Mayor Wallace Cartwright.

The current shelter, which Bailey said has a capacity of 24 if all bunk beds are used, currently houses about 18-20 people. But Bailey said there's an increasing problem with families becoming homeless and said he recently had to split up a family and send them to two different locations for shelter. Bailey said that when he was involved with homeless shelters in California, the expectation was that men would outnumber women three-to-one. Here, however, women and children outnumber men three-to-one.

Bailey said the two employment agencies which had been supplying workers to the Sanford plant have released 100 or more people each. The closure was expected and had been announced many months ago but the actual release of the workers, Bailey said, could send the county's unemployment rate as high as 14 or 15 percent.

"We are continually running at near capacity," said Bailey. "I'm out of space. I don't know what to do."

The property where the shelter is located, at 116 Hickory Drive, is expected to be sold in the near future. It's owned by Brett Jones of Mississippi, a horse owner currently in town for the Celebration. Bailey said Jones remains strong in his support for the facility and is working to make property available just outside town where a new shelter could be built. Bailey, Cartwright and Ray all praised Jones for his generosity to CROSS in making the Hickory Drive facility available and in looking for property to be a long-term home for the shelter.

In the meantime, however, the shelter has two challenges.

Bailey said there's a home in a commercial zone on Deery Street which would be available to lease in the short term. He said there's enough money in the CROSS budget to renovate it, but he would need financial help with making the lease payments.

The shelter also needs to find a way to raise money so that it can build at the new site. The current concept calls for three metal buildings -- one for men, one for women and one for families.

Ray asked whether FEMA could provide trailers to set up on the property. Bailey said that was a possibility, but it creates some legal problems. If a family or individuals are placed in an individual trailer, there is a legal precedent giving them an expectation of privacy, even in the context of a shelter. If the occupants are allowed to lock their trailers, Bailey said, it increases the chance of unsavory activities taking place inside.

Bailey told the mayors he wants to form a shelter task force to marshal resources and volunteers for both the short-term and long-term solutions.

Starting Monday, CROSS will be open to distribute food and clothing six days a week, from 8:30 until 4:30 each day. Bailey said CROSS is also in line to receive a share of a huge federal grant for programs to prevent homelessness. The agency has submitted its application for 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, and Bailey said he has every indication it will be approved.

Bailey said economic development must be counted on to provide the ultimate solution for the homeless problem.

"What we need," he said, "is jobs, and work."

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CROSS has a web site at crossshelterproject.org. Bailey can be contacted at 575-9954. Donations or correspondence can be sent to Community Religious Outreach Social Services, P.O. Box 256, Shelbyville, TN 37162-0256.