This month, C.A.R.E.S. received the donation of a facility that encompasses more than 70,000 square feet on five acres in north Lafayette. "We went from being thrown out on the street to being handed this huge donation," says C.A.R.E.S. Director Claude Martin. "The irony of what we went through in one year's time is mind boggling."
Lafayette Guest House, formerly a 206-bed nursing facility with an adjacent inpatient psychiatric hospital, Oceans Behavior Healthcare, was given to C.A.R.E.S. by Jerrine Harrell of Alexandria, Donna McPherson (wife of Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth), and Lafayette resident John Wright. The trio own numerous nursing homes across the state, each registered as different LLCs and managed by Central Control Inc. The corporation also owns Magnolia Estates on Dulles Drive, and recently opened Camelot of Broussard, a new $17 million multi-faceted geriatric care and nursing facility. The clients of Lafayette Guest House moved to Camelot in September 2006, leaving the nursing home on Martin Luther King Drive vacant.
"We could have sold it," Wright says. The empty facility is in the process of being appraised ' and will be valued in the neighborhood of $3.5 million, according to Wright. The decision to make the donation is a combination of good business ' being able to claim a charitable donation on taxes, and doing something positive for the community. "We asked ourselves what is the highest and best use of this facility," Wright says. "And we thought it might work as a shelter."
Wright called his niece, Kimberly James, executive director of Lafayette Catholic Service Centers. Catholic Services runs St. Joseph's Diner, St. Joseph's Shelter for Men, and the New Life Center in Opelousas, among other services which provide emergency assistance with rent, utilities, food, clothing, medicine, shelter, furnishings, medical and dental care. James had just started construction on a shelter at 427 St. John St. to house homeless veterans and didn't feel that her organization could undertake the renovations necessary on the huge nursing home. "It was too much for us," James says. "We felt that C.A.R.E.S. was the best fit. I think very highly of Claude."
Says Wright, "Kimberly hooked me up with Claude. We thought Acadiana C.A.R.E.S. was a worthwhile organization that had a great need, and we had a way to resolve it." By making the donation to C.A.R.E.S., Wright says "we could be assured that what happened last year would never happen again."
Lafayette Guest House and Oceans Behavior Healthcare were located in separate buildings on the same campus. When CCI signed over the building, they also donated Ocean's remaining two-and-a-half year lease to C.A.R.E.S., with the intention that the income could help with renovations and maintenance. Oceans subsequently moved out, leaving their building vacant. Oceans is debating whether to buy out their lease or find a sublessor to occupy the building for the remaining term of their lease. Either action gives C.A.R.E.S. working income.
In C.A.R.E.S' first phase of its expansion, it will relocate its residential programs for HIV/AIDS victims and disabled individuals to the site. Thirty of the nursing home rooms will be renovated into 15 apartments, each with a bedroom, bath, kitchenette, living and dining area. This will triple C.A.R.E.S.' permanent residential capacity and allow all its clients to live in one facility. Following in January 2008, C.A.R.E.S. will relocate its counseling offices, food bank, community meeting spaces and administrative offices. C.A.R.E.S. will vacate its downtown location by March 2008.
Martin envisions a facility that goes beyond the mission of C.A.R.E.S. To that end, he has assembled a task force made up of members of the Acadiana Regional Coalition for Homelessness, in conjunction with his new neighbors in the Truman area, to brainstorm how the facility can best serve the disadvantaged. "We're in the early stages of talking to other agencies who want to be under the same roof," he says. "All of us in social agencies working with these populations want to put this together."
C.A.R.E.S. has long sought to develop a daycare program that will provide childcare services to low- and moderate-income families. The new facility has room for educational programs and green space for playgrounds. Another goal is to build a substance abuse treatment program starting in 2008, which will include in-house 28-day treatment, followed by release to a halfway house, which will be housed at the facility in the future.
Meanwhile, James, who has been in discussion with the Veterans Administration to build more housing for homeless veterans, saw an opportunity to partner with C.A.R.E.S. Lafayette Catholic Service Centers is building a shelter which will offer two-year housing for 12 disabled veterans. In the next year, they hope to expand and shelter a total of 16 vets. Even with that increase, the VA is requesting more beds in this area. James and Martin are considering the possibility of using some of C.A.R.E.S.' new real estate to house homeless veterans, who could then benefit from Housing and Urban Development programs for the chronically homeless run by C.A.R.E.S.
Martin is also reaching out to the architects, designers and benefactors who helped build and furnish Hope House's original location. "I've already had phone calls offering help," he says. "The community is already responding."
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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