Rice: New Life to step up efforts in Cape Girardeau

The New Life Evangelistic Center will step up its efforts to help Cape Girardeau's poor and homeless with free personal hygiene kits, blankets and other help available at the outreach center at 707 Broadway, the Rev. Larry Rice said Monday.

Rice visited the storefront outpost of his multistate ministry to highlight efforts there in the wake of an announcement last week that the one-time director of the outreach center will open a locally funded emergency homeless shelter independent of New Life.

The outreach center also needs additional volunteers, Rice said. One way the outreach center is helping homeless people is by asking volunteers to take people into their homes, he said. Another way is by providing hotel stays until something more permanent can be found, he said.

The outreach center tries to fill the gap between assistance programs and immediate need, Rice said. "The problem is people feel like they have to go through $10 worth of red tape to get $1 worth of help," Rice said.

Rice continues to pursue his application to obtain the federal building at 339 Broadway to use as an emergency homeless shelter and transitional housing center. The application is pending before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The former New Life outreach center director, Chaplain Terry Wildman, announced plans for the Shelter of Hope, an emergency shelter that will have eight beds at 320 S. Sprigg St. He was surrounded by community leaders, many of whom oppose Rice's plans for the federal building.

Rice said Wildman told him he left the New Life organization due to illnesses, but Wildman has said he decided he did not like the way New Life operates. Any effort to help the homeless is welcome, Rice said.

The United Way of Southeast Missouri, which last week launched a "Road to Recovery" campaign to address basic needs, reported that federal stimulus funds have been used to help 64 families, including 31 homeless families, find housing in the past two months. United Way executive director Nancy Jernigan said she is unsure whether Wildman's new shelter will provide enough space to provide emergency help to those who need it.

"We are going to find out, actually, when this opens," Jernigan said in a telephone interview.

The numbers reported by United Way point to a need for comprehensive, immediate help for the homeless, Rice said. "This is consistent with what we have been saying all along," he said.

Deborah Young, president of the NAACP chapter in Southeast Missouri, is now helping Rice run the outreach center. She said it served 200 families in December and more than 50 in the three weeks she has been there. Not all were homeless, but all needed assistance in the form of food or warm clothing, she said.

That shows the great need in the city, she said, "The agenda I have found that Larry has is helping the homeless and doing what the word of God says to do."

To volunteer or donate, contact Young at 335-0206, the outreach center at 332-7777 or New Life Evangelistic Center at 800-334-3276.

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

707 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO

339 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO

320 S. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, MO