A proposal to convert a long-vacant motel and restaurant north of Hillsboro into a transitional housing center for people who are homeless found favor with the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission.
The board voted 6-2 on July 13 to recommend approval of a conditional-use permit that would allow the New Hope Outreach Center, described as a religious sanctuary and rehabilitation center, to be developed on the site of the former Opal’s Motel and Restaurant at 9637 Old Hwy. 21.
The Jefferson County Council, which is the sole authority on land-use issues in unincorporated areas, will consider the conditional-use permit at a future meeting.
The 5.89-acre site includes two buildings that were used for motel rooms and a third that was a restaurant.
The restaurant opened in 1958 and the motel opened in 1963, and Opal Howard and two generations of her family ran the restaurant before it closed in 2001.
New Hope Outreach Center, a ministry of New Hope Fellowship Church in High Ridge, is requesting the conditional-use permit.
Last year it had proposed a larger-scale facility for homeless people on land owned by the Jefferson Baptist Association on Baptist Park Road in the Mapaville area.
The County Council denied that request.
Casey Kindt, a member of the church’s pastoral staff, acknowledged that fact in her opening remarks.
“We took the advice of the County Council, to scale back our plans and get out of the public eye,” she said.
Last year’s proposal included providing housing for up to 36 people; the new plan calls for only four to be housed in one of the former motel buildings at first, with housing for another four to eight to be added once the other motel building is rehabbed. The restaurant would be rehabbed as a religious sanctuary and for offices. New Hope purchased the site in March.
The permit allows up to 20 homeless people to be housed at the center, although Kindt conceded reaching that capacity would be a long-range possibility, dependent on enough donations to construct a third building.
“We would only be able to make a small impact at the beginning, but not to those four people,” Kindt said, “To them, it’s their world.”
Kindt said the problem with homelessness in Jefferson County has only worsened since the public hearings on the Mapaville application were held last year.
“Now there are 200 people living behind the Walmart in Festus,” she said. “In Jefferson County, that’s a small subdivision.”
Kindt said many of the new people experiencing homelessness in this area are forced into that situation not because of drug abuse or crime, but financial factors.
“I get three or four calls a week from people who tell me, ‘My rent has increased and I can’t afford it anymore, so I’m living in my car,’” she said.
Kindt said she will vet residents of the facility, and they will be tested for drug use before being accepted.
“We’re not pulling people from behind Walmart and putting them there,” she said. “Active drug users will not be accepted here.
“I’m going to be looking for someone wanting to get out of their homeless situation.”
Those accepted into the facility will live there for six months, during which they will receive vocational training. She said follow-up services will continue for a year after they leave the Hillsboro-area site.
“We’re in this for the long haul,” Kindt said.
Other health and wellness services will be provided by Compass Health (formerly Comtrea), the Jefferson County Health Department, the Jefferson Franklin Community Action Corporation and Mercy Hospital Jefferson, she said.
About 20 people attended the July 13 P&Z hearing, some to show support and some to voice opposition.
One of the three people who spoke against the application, Susan Williamson, who lives off Jarvis Road on the west side of Old Hwy. 21, said the location for the center is wrong.
“I’m for helping the homeless, but you want to encourage them to work. Maybe this should be in a place where they can walk to jobs. They should put it in a city where it will be close to services,” she said.
“If you want to put the homeless somewhere, put them in your house. We don’t want this to be like Los Angeles or Philadelphia that have the homeless everywhere. We already have strange people walking up and down our road.
“I’m not for this becoming a dream for liberal bleeding hearts,” she said. “I don’t want to look out at my driveway and there are homeless tents everywhere.”
Another nearby resident, Barbara Johnson, said having the facility in the neighborhood will negatively impact property values.
“I work very hard to maintain my property and pay taxes,” she said. “I don’t want homeless people walking up and down the streets. There will be busloads of people from the city being dumped here.”
Alexander Burcham, who lives on Jarvis Road, said there already are drug-related problems in the area.
“I don’t think they know what they’re getting into,” Burcham said, detailing what he described as an active drug house nearby.
“It’s been seven years and nothing’s being done,” he said. “Is there any way to make sure that these people are drug-tested and on the up and up?”
Planning commissioner Danny Tuggle said those proposing the facility have a plan to avoid those problems.
“These people are trying to do something.”
Kindt said New Hope would employ a “top-notch” security service for the facility, and that once 10 residents are housed there, a staff member would be on site around the clock.
Planning commissioner Jessie Scherrer, who cast one of two dissenting votes, said he was uncomfortable that a staff member would not be on the site continuously from the beginning.
Mike Huskey, who cast the other ‘no’ vote, said he agreed that the site was not right.
“I don’t think this is the right location,” he said. “It should be in a city.”
Huskey also said he had concerns that a sewage lagoon on the site will be reactivated, although county staff said it would have to conform with current regulations.
Kindt said New Hope would hook onto the Hillsboro sewer system once lines are extended to the area.