Last May, the Shalom Community Center settled into the basement of 110 S. Washington St. after 10 months and $54,000 worth of renovations. \nJust weeks later, the center’s property was bought by Finelight, a marketing and communications firm, forcing the center to begin its search for a new home. \nNow, one year later, Shalom has finally found the location that will house the community’s homeless during the day. But the solution is only temporary. \nFor the next 18 months beginning Friday, Shalom will operate out of two churches – one which currently houses the dining portion of its services.\nSince Shalom’s opening in 2000, it has served as a center for the homeless and disabled of Monroe County, said Joel Rekas, executive director. With just three full-time staffers, including Rekas, the center will now move its day shelter and use both First United Methodist Church, 219 E. Fourth St., and First Christian Church, 205 E. Kirkwood Ave., for its services. Both breakfast and lunch will still be provided at First United, but the church will also house the day center, offering laundry services and telephones, while First Christian will contain the casework and job services, Rekas said. \n“We’re certainly grateful to both of these churches for housing us,” Rekas said. “But for the long term we do need a permanent facility.” \nThe two leases with the churches will end in December 2008, he said. Though there will be adequate space for now, with numbers pushing to more than 200 per day and 1,500 total people in the past year, the center just needs more space, Rekas said. \nRekas discussed options for the center – including a capital campaign or possibly collaboration with another agency. But he said the best option would be for someone to purchase a building on the center’s behalf and offer a long-term lease at an affordable rate. \n“Life as a small nonprofit generally is very tricky. It’s year-to-year,” Rekas said. “We’re all raising money from the same community.”
A growing firm\nFinelight, which has also caused small businesses like Greek’s Pizzeria to plan relocation and Ladyman’s Café to close, notified Rekas just weeks after their move into the Washington Street location that a new building would take its place. Rekas said the company has been “honest and straightforward” and also offered “substantial reimbursement for the renovations.” \n“The larger issue for the community is what do we want our downtown to look like?” Rekas said. “For a small community, its character in part is defined by small business. That’s what gives it its charm. That’s what makes Bloomington Bloomington.” \nTravis Vencel, president of Heartland Development, Finelight’s sister company, said the company has now decided to move to the west side of Bloomington to a building on Liberty Drive late this fall.\nThough the company still owns the Kirkwood land and would like to be downtown eventually, problems have arisen between the city and Finelight over parking options, Vencel said. The city was expected to come up with a parking plan that would determine Finelight’s decision to move to the Kirkwood location, but because of the city’s delay in making this plan, the company has moved forward with a plan of its own, he said.\n“We can’t wait any longer,” Vencel said of Finelight, which has outgrown its present building at the intersection of Kirkwood Avenue and College Avenue. “We asked for a parking plan so that we were not a parking problem downtown.” \nBecause Finelight still owns the property and the lease has expired, Shalom will move, despite the fact that Finelight will not be taking over the property in the near future. When plans were made for the new building, Vencel told Shalom they would need to leave when the lease expired.\n“We made these commitments, but then the city didn’t come forth with theirs,” Vencel said. “We can’t very well go back on that.” \nVencel said Finelight provided nearly $30,000 to help Shalom move. \n“We feel we went over and above what we were contracted to do,” he said. “I don’t feel like we pushed them out.” \nThough Mary Andrus-Overley has only been the director of programs at Shalom for about a year, she said she has spent years doing social and advocacy work and has seen other agencies go through similar tough times and “come out even better.”\n“The agency is solid,” she said. “It’s not going away just because it has to move around a little bit.”
Shalom 'saves lives'\nGuests of the Shalom Center emphasized the importance of the center's services and expressed concern about how Bloomington addresses homelessness.\nMylo Roze, a 35-year-old who has come to Shalom off and on for the past five years, said health problems have caused him to be unemployed for much of the year. When the center closes at night, he stays in a tent.\n"It’s amazing the level of generalization people make about people in that position," Roze said. "Your basic human needs should be human rights ... Why should anyone be denied the basics of living?"\n"It’s displacing a lot of people," said John Hammond, 50, who has also been coming to Shalom for the past five years. “There are a lot of people down here that do want to go to work.” Problems with transportation and students taking many of the jobs available are some of the main problems with finding a job, he said. \n“I think being downtown we’re under a microscope,” Hammond said. “Every person is different who becomes homeless. A lot of people have disabilities that prevent them from working ... We do appreciate what is done for us. This place does save lives – a lot.” \nRoze said the administrators at the center have stayed focused on moving forward at the new location and have not gotten caught up in the reasons behind the move. \n“As administrators, they’re not trying to rock the boat,” Roze said. “They’re not trying to make waves. They know they have to put potential energy elsewhere.” \nAs the center prepared to move to another temporary location, Rekas refused to fixate on the cause of the move, but instead emphasized the center’s goals and future. \n“We’re optimistic,” he said. “We have to focus on helping people that desperately need help.”
