Mercy Fort Smith, Westphal boosts donations to Fort Smith homeless campus

The effort to raise $2.9 million for downtown Fort Smith Riverview Hope Campus for the homeless gained $450,000 with a donation from Mercy Fort Smith and Fort Smith businessman Bennie Westphal.

A $350,000 donation from Mercy and a $100,000 donation from Westphal was announced Thursday (Jan. 8) and follows a $100,000 donation announced Dec. 10 by the Richard Griffin Family.

The planned Riverview Hope Campus is expected to provide access to counseling, case management, medical and mental health services, basic education/GED classes, job training and placement services. Food, shelter, a worship center, bathrooms, showers, barbershop, laundry, storage and kennels will also be available.

The campus will be located at 301 S. E St., in a former furniture manufacturing plant. It will include a 75-bed low-barrier emergency shelter, cafeteria and commercial kitchen, showers, laundry area, classrooms, counseling rooms, barber shop, kennels, bulk storage and a worship center. Plans for the campus were first unveiled in October 2012.

Financial support from Mercy, Westphal and the Griffins raises collections to $2.1 million, according to Debbie Everly, director of homeless programs for Fort Smith. The $2.1 million includes $603,441 in Community Development Block Grant funds from the city of Fort Smith, $500,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas; and $646,559 in private, foundation and in-kind  gifts.

“We’re making good strides. It’s all adding up and we are getting very close,” Everly said Thursday of the capital campaign that began in March 2014.

Pending is a $695,000 request for funds through the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, Everly said.

The $2.9 million will fund phase one of the project. Phase two is valued at $700,000 and includes 12 single-occupancy rooms for those who are transitioning away from the homeless campus. Phase three is a $330,000 project to provide 25 beds for the chronically homeless with mental illness.

The goal is to secure the $2.9 million in funding by the end of February, and then begin the design and bid process. Everly said they hope to begin construction in July 2016, with construction expected to take eight months.

Westphal said he often interacts with the homeless population located near his downtown Fort Smith business and considers them “gentle souls” who are in need of assistance.

“The Riverview Hope Campus will help these individuals experiencing homelessness in a more efficient manner. I like the idea of having the needed services under one roof and giving hope for better outcomes for the homeless and poor,” Westphal said in a statement. (Westphal is a a co-owner of The City Wire.)

Westphal looks forward to a place where the homeless will be safer and able to get services to transition out of homelessness.

Dr. Cole Goodman, president of Mercy Clinic Fort Smith, said the project allows the community to best pool its resources and help the homeless.

“Mercy is always looking for ways to reach patients who have a hard time accessing health care services in our community,” Goodman said in a statement from Mercy. “The idea that we could pool our resources with other agencies and create one location to assist our homeless and low-income population lines up with our mission to help patients find care close to them.”