New law may be hurdle for Cape homeless shelter application

A little-noticed provision tucked into the $410 billion federal budget bill passed in March could become a major obstacle to the Rev. Larry Rice's plan to obtain the Cape Girardeau federal building for use as a homeless shelter.

Inserted by U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., the new law requires the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to "fully and comprehensively" review the finances, track record and management ability of some groups seeking surplus federal buildings to serve the homeless. The organizations that must undergo the review are those that, like Rice's New Life Evangelistic Center, do not already use federal funds to aid their programs.

In a May 7 letter to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Bond said Rice's ministry "has made a habit of obtaining often inappropriate surplus federal properties to use for the homeless." Federal agencies that review the applications "basically rubberstamp" New Life Evangelistic Center requests, Bond wrote.

New Life is awaiting a decision on its application to the Department of Health and Human Services for the building. If that department approves it, HUD must also approve it, with the final decision in the hands of the General Services Administration, which controls the building.

Rice wants to use the 47,000-square-foot building at 339 Broadway for transitional programs for homeless veterans and homeless families. The New Life application says the ministry expects to serve up to 125 people a year in the transitional program, or 40 to 50 at any one time. The building would also have beds for emergency shelter stays of up to 14 days, which Rice said would serve about 10 people each night. Rice also intends to open a free store for the needy.

"I don't see any transitional programs such as we propose in Cape," Rice said. "This is not a shelter program; this is to help people break the cycle of homelessness in the community where they reside."

A decision on the application is expected late this month or early in June. Rice's proposal has generated intense opposition from Cape Girardeau city and county leaders and business interests. The portrayal of some local agencies as supporting the plan has angered many who could be considered natural allies of Rice's mission.

McCaskill opposed

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., is opposing the application. U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., joined the opposition Thursday. She issued a statement that she has asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to keep an eye on the application and that she "is working to make sure that the vacant federal building is not used for what would be one of the largest homeless shelters in the state."

The federal building is much too large for the number of homeless in Cape Girardeau, McCaskill said. "It makes no sense to use this 47,000-square-foot building for a very small homeless population in the Cape Girardeau area. Common sense dictates that this is the wrong building, the wrong size and the wrong place. I'll be working with Senator Bond and Congresswoman Emerson to prevent this building from being used for this purpose."

Rice, in response to both Bond and McCaskill, said he welcomes any scrutiny that federal agencies care to give his programs. The New Life Evangelistic Center is financially strong, with dedicated contributors, assets that include a commercial television station and noncommercial radio stations and programs that have aided thousands of homeless, Rice said.

"When a person backs off from the political opposition and takes a look at an organization that has as many or more assets than any organization in the country that is trying to help the homeless, we feel we would be able to implement the programs described in our application."

Bond's aim with the new law, Rice said, is to prevent federal property from being used to aid the homeless without appearing to be attacking the homeless. That is the reason for language requiring intense reviews of the organizations seeking federal buildings, he said.

Rice successfully sought a surplus Social Security Administration building in Springfield. He was denied the use of a 400,000-square-foot federal building in St. Louis; he filed a lawsuit over the denial but later withdrew from the case.

"Kit Bond really doesn't want any surplus property to be used to aid the homeless," Rice said.

But Bond has defended his record on homeless issues and was a key sponsor of a measure passed in the U.S. Senate last week that would provide $2.2 billion for long-term programs to help people break out of homelessness.

'Times have changed'

In his letter, Bond wrote that the law giving federal buildings to the homeless, passed in 1987, represents thinking from a different era.

"This process was initially enacted at a time when many communities had a bias against the homeless and tried to avoid any responsibility for the homeless," Bond wrote. "However, times have changed."

The Department of Health and Human Services has 25 days from the May 4 application date by New Life to make its decision. Requests by the Southeast Missourian for interviews with the department official responsible for making the decision have been turned down. In answers to written questions, Health and Human Services spokesman Mike Robinson noted that because the department must make its decisions in a short time, "HHS' evaluation will, generally, be limited to the information contained in the application."

Robinson said the department does not comment on the specifics of pending applications.

A law making it harder to obtain federal surplus property for the homeless isn't needed, Rice said. Fewer than 1 percent of federal properties deemed suitable for use by the homeless have actually been awarded to organizations that aid the homeless.

The agencies that seek federal buildings often do so in the face of local opposition, Rice said. Local agencies, dependent on community support, are reluctant to fight that opposition and that is why New Life aggressively seeks out the properties, he added.

"When all is said and done, the only agencies that are going to make use of those buildings are ones not beholden to the local powers that be," Rice said. "I have stood against impossible odds before, and that is where my faith comes in."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

339 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO