Renovation of Fort Smith building to benefit homeless

Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks Thursday during the groundbreaking for the Riverview Hope Campus in Fort Smith. The new facility will have a 75-bed shelter, medical and dental care, adult education, laundry service, meals and showers to help homeless families get help as they work on getting back on their feet.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks Thursday during the groundbreaking for the Riverview Hope Campus in Fort Smith. The new facility will have a 75-bed shelter, medical and dental care, adult education, laundry service, meals and showers to help homeless families get help as they work on getting back on their feet.

FORT SMITH -- The renovation of a vacant furniture factory building south of downtown is set to begin in the next few days to develop a campus to give homeless and low-income people a second chance at life.

"In the life of every human being, there's a moment when a door opens and lets the future in. The Riverview Hope Campus is that open door," Sam Fiori said during a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday attended by about 200 people at the 301 South E St. campus site.

Fiori is the head of the Help Within Reach capital campaign that has raised nearly $3 million to buy the vacant Riverside Furniture building and finance the renovation.

He said during the ceremony, which was attended by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, that the bid by SSI Inc. of Fort Smith was higher than expected, and he was reopening the campaign to raise an additional $500,000 for the project.

He announced the Fiori Family Charitable Foundation was establishing a $100,000 grant to match pledges and donations made to the homeless campus before Dec. 1.

Fort Smith homeless coordinator Debbie Everly said SSI's bid was about $3 million, which was higher than the $2.2 million anticipated cost of the renovation. Efforts by SSI, Everly and the Old Fort Homeless Coalition, which is heading the project, were able to reduce the bid to about $2.7 million.

Everly said she was confident the remaining money needed could be raised in about a month.

SSI is moving ahead with work on the first phase of the campus, which includes remodeling 35,000 square feet of the the 127,000-square-foot building. A 75-bed low barrier shelter and space for other tenants will provide a variety of services.

Among the other services will be a Mercy Fort Smith medical clinic, adult education, counseling, job training, cafeteria, laundry, showers, kennel and property storage.

The campus is expected to open next fall, Everly said.

Fiori said the second phase of the project will include development of 12 single-occupancy transitional apartments on the campus. A third phase will be a 25-bed facility, to be called Safe Haven, for chronically ill homeless people.

Mercy Hospital's Cole Goodman announced Thursday that in August 2017, Dr. Pat Montiel will open his medical practice at the Riverview Hope Campus.

Montiel said the position fits Mercy Fort Smith's mission to provide hope.

"I feel we are called to show mercy and give hope and this is a way to live that every day," he said.

Hope was the theme for speakers during the ceremony. Hutchinson said he was reminded of the saying, "Hope is looking at life on tiptoes."

He praised the community's effort to develop the campus as more than just a place for a bed and a meal. He said the campus promised to be an opportunity for the homeless to transition to contributing members of society and to regain the dignity of working and providing for one's family.

"What we have to do is give those who are seeking a second chance that opportunity to look at life on tiptoes once again," he said.

Fiori on Thursday named the major donors of the Riverview Hope Campus.

They are the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, city of Fort Smith, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, Mercy Fort Smith, Fiori Family Charitable Foundation, Griffin Family, Westphal Family, Walton Family Foundation, Hanna Oil and Gas, Jack and JoAnn Gedosh and Sally and Elvin Frick.

NW News on 10/24/2015

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