Anniston homeless to gain shelter with new construction on Gurnee

Feb. 22—Maudine Holloway and the late Martha Vandervoort, both widely known for their earnest and successful efforts to aid the homeless and destitute in Anniston, will have their names attached to new property designed to advance their cause.

The Anniston City Council Tuesday afternoon saw plans presented by the Community Task Force on Homelessness for new construction at 1411 Gurnee Avenue that will help the homeless have a chance at decent lives.

The current building — known for decades as the War Memorial Building — will be torn down. Officials said the existing structure, erected in 1949, would be too costly to upgrade due to its age and condition.

Shannon Jenkins, chairman of the Community Task Force on Homelessness, said the cost of building something new — at a price tag of $1.5 million — instead of rehabbing the old one comes down to economics. Jenkins is also the president and CEO of the United Way of East Central Alabama.

"When we did the original retrofit of the building that is there now, it actually came in at just little over $3 million because of there's remediation to be done, there's some structural issues and repairs on the foundation that would have to be done," Jenkins said, "The architect and the contractor we had looking at all this basically said, 'you really need to look at a new build,' and so that's what we're looking at here, it really cut the price tag in half."

Kyle Bryan, First United Methodist Church congregation's associate pastor, said that the center will have two sections.

The first floor will be used for emergency housing and will be named Martha's Hope, or, more formally, The Martha Vandervoort Center to End Homelessness. The bottom floor will include transitional housing units with a separate entrance and will be named Holloway House in honor of Maudine Holloway, founder and director of Community Enabler Developer, Inc.

The Community Enabler was located at 1411 Gurnee before moving to another location on F Street.

Jenkins said Vandervoort, who died in 2015, was known for her work to aid the community's homeless, abused and poor residents.

"It's just a beautiful way to honor Martha's legacy, if you knew Martha Vandervoort you knew her passion for the homeless,you knew that this was her hope," said Jenkins, who's also the president and CEO of the United Way of East Central Alabama.

"We know that ending homelessness is a big, big project that we may never totally achieve, but our real goal is for everybody who enters those doors, that we are able to end homelessness for them," he said.

Jenkins said he had talked to the Vandervoort family and presented the idea to them and they were overwhelmed and overcome by the gesture to honor their loved one.

"When I told Martha's daughter that we would be presenting this she just kind of paused and said, 'that was my mom's birthday,' so today is Martha's birthday and we just thought that was special," Jenkins said.

Jenkins said that Holloway felt very honored that the facility will be named after her.

Jenkins said the homeless center will offer much more than just a place to sleep.

"What we are really focusing on here is not just a place to provide a shelter, we really want to provide comprehensive services within the walls of this proposed building we have here," he said.

Jenkins said that 24,000 people in Calhoun County are living in poverty with 8,000 of those being children.

Bryan gave an update to the council on the statistics of the warming station located at The Bridge.

So far this winter the warming station — that's been open for 42 nights — serves an average of 44 individuals on the freezing nights that it's open and has served a total of 148 individuals overall.

Bryan then updated the council on the latest point-in-time homeless count for Calhoun County that was recently conducted and the numbers are increasing.

"Last year we had approximately 68 chronically homeless individuals, this year we counted 111 in Calhoun County, we counted 147 total homeless individuals," Bryan said.

Jenkins it will take $1.5 million dollars to complete the project with funding coming from:

— The city of Anniston

— United Way investment

— Corporate partners

— Private foundations

Once completed, the annual budget for the facility is expected to be $550,000 that will come from federal and state grants, local governments, corporate partners, private foundations and restricted donations.

Jenkins said on Wednesday that he hopes the demolition of the building will take place in late spring and the groundbreaking for Martha's Place will take place after that.

Jenkins said the decision to fund the center is waiting on funds from the city.

"We're positive about it, it looks good," Jenkins said.

Anniston mayor Jack Draper is also confident along with councilwoman Ciara Smith the council will approve the funding.

"I absolutely believe that the council will approve the funding," Draper said on Wednesday.

Construction of the present building at 1411 Gurnee began in February 1949 to serve as the Calhoun County War Memorial Library that would be used by the Calhoun County library before it merged with the city library.

Names of servicemen and servicewomen were also included on large tablets in the building.

The Anniston Museum of Natural History — formerly the Regar Museum — occupied the building in the late '60s and early '70s with its collection after the museum's previous location at the Carnegie Library was torn down. In 1976 the Anniston Museum moved to its current location.

In other matters at the council work session, Greg Fortner, executive director of the Anniston Housing Authority, announced a new 13-unit housing development on South Allen Avenue that will cost $2-2.5 million. The per-unit cost will not be as much as the new Barber Terrace housing complex because more infrastructure had to be constructed to accommodate the large facility, Fortner said.

"This is a rising neighborhood, because right to the east of the hill of this property is of course Barber Terrace, the sixty units that we have just rehabbed to the tune of $13 million dollars," Fortner said.

Fortner said that the nearby 24-unit Tinsley Manor will be upgraded so it will fit into the integrity of the other new housing complexes at a cost of $2 million.

During the formal meeting, Coach Haley Long and race director for the Woodstock 5K, presented the Road Runners Club of America Friendly Community plaque to the council.

Long said that the designation is only presented to a few cities across the United States that exhibit a runner friendly community mindset.

Long said the accreditation is valid for five years and went on to thank all the stakeholders necessary to make the award possible.

Council members were appreciative of Long and her efforts to get the award for the city that included getting five letters of recommendations from various entities.

In other business, the council:

* Voted in a resolution endorsing Regional Medical Center's letter of intention to form an affiliation agreement with the UAB health system.

* Passed a resolution authorizing the city of Anniston to join the State of Alabama and other local governments as participants in current opioid settlements.

* Approved $33,000 to the Community Foundation of Northeast Alabama to replace the destroyed Korean War Memorial in Centennial Park with funds totalling $25,000 from the insurance settlement and $8,000 from the city's reserves.

* Approved a bid of $238,600 to re-roof the Berman Museum to Garner & Associates.

* Approved a bid to Alabama Roofing & Sheet Metal in the amount of $543,400 for repairs at the Cane Creek Clubhouse.

Staff writer Bill Wilson: 256-235-3562. On Twitter @bwilson_star.