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Monday, November 7, 2005
Real need exists for House of Joy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bobigene Pack keeps trying to do the Lord’s will, but sometimes stumbling blocks get in the way.
Recently, though, everything seemed to be falling into place. She landed a financial backer who shared her dream. And she’d found a facility for sale that needed little, if any, work. It all seemed too good to be true.
Turns out, it was.
The facility was Century Gardens, a senior living center near downtown Norcross that’s shutting its doors. It has 28 rooms and is licensed for 38 beds. It has a commercial kitchen and a wraparound porch with ceiling fans. Perfect, Pack thought, for a homeless shelter, her year-old vision.
Last month, Century Gardens went on the auction block. The highest bid exceeded $1 million. Too rich for Pack and an investor who had secured a loan for up to $750,000. They didn’t make an offer. Even if they could have bought the property, zoning may have been tricky. Unofficial inquiries at Norcross City Hall gave Pack the impression that officials may have been lukewarm to a homeless shelter.
So Pack’s dream continues to be deferred. Yet she’s unshaken. Still trusting in the Lord. Still marching on, upbeat and undeterred, harboring no malice about what could have been.
“I was closer, financially, than I’ve ever been to being able to buy a building,” said Pack, founder of Love in Action Outreach Ministries, a nonprofit in Norcross. “This would have been a great start for us.”
And Gwinnett.
In 2004, one of my early columns dealt with the county’s lack of a homeless shelter. It featured Pack, a trained minister who told me the Lord had commanded her to provide cots for those who sleep in the woods and in cars. She’s been working to make a shelter a reality every since.
Pack’s been close before. At one time, a shuttered warehouse held promise. Next it was a vacant apartment unit. She was unable to raise the money both times.
County officials and the chamber brass like to boast about “success” living here. Of course it does. But we seem incapable of generating enough interest and support to address a problem advocates say continues to grow.
“It just makes better sense to provide a safe haven where they can live and get on their feet,” said Donna Long, president of Changing Lives, a faith-based organization in Lawrenceville that supports Pack. “Why are the Christians in our community not stepping up to address these issues?”
Say we open a shelter with 25 rooms. Churches, nonprofits and businesses could adopt a room for a year and be responsible for the particular family who occupies it. Families could stay from three to six months, hoped to be time aplenty for the adults to get themselves together.
This week, Pack plans to take a look at five potential locations for a shelter.
She’s already picked out a name for the operation: “House of Joy.”
“We’re going forward, aggressively,” she told me.
And still trusting in the Lord.
• Rick Badie’s column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. He can be reached at rbadie@ajc.com or 263-3875.
