Tag: Brad Watkins

Categories
News News Blog

Advocates Urge New Direction for Homeless Shelter Plan

CREDIT: Full Build

Full Build

Rendering of planned facility

Homeless advocates urged local leaders to re-think an $8 million plan for a new shelter, and to use the money, instead, for permanent housing, warning that the shelter could become a “human zoo.”

Last week, members of the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission detailed plans for the relocation and expansion of the Hospitality Hub, an organization that assists homeless men and women, providing customized care, resources, and/or referrals in partnership with other organizations.

Mid-South Peace and Justice Center

Private funding totaling $5 million has already been secured for the facility. Local government leaders pledged $2.4 million over two years.

The new facility will be for women and is planned for the former city of Memphis Public Service Inspection Station on Washington. The shelter will house 32 women, who  can spend four to nine days and, in some cases, up to 30 days. The goal of the new effort, officials said, is to eliminate street-level homelessness within 30 months.

The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (MSPJC) said Tuesday that the plan “is not what it seems” and that “while well-intentioned, is missing the mark.”

Mid-South Peace and Justice Center

Brad Watkins

“With a proposed price tag of over $5 million in private construction and renovation costs, and up to $2.4 million in city and county funding, we could provide real housing, not just temporary shelter, for as many as 150 households by expanding funding for existing city and county programs, from the city’s contribution alone,” Brad Watkins, MSPJC’s executive director, said in a statement. “It’s not always how much you spend, it’s what you spend it on.”

Watkins said the money would be better spent in the Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Program, Rapid Rehousing, deposit and utility assistance, and Permanent Supportive Housing programs.

Thousands are now on a waiting list for housing through the Memphis Housing authority, Watkins said. Spending ”massive resources on a shelter for 32 individuals when there is likely no housing to place these people in afterwards, places a multi-million dollar cart in front of the proverbial horse.”
[pullquote-1] “In October of 2017, over 15,000 qualified local applicants for housing assistance were placed into a lottery for housing,” Watkins said. “The ‘winners’ didn’t get housing, they were simply added to the waiting list. This shows just how big of a gap there is when it comes to housing security.”

Further, MSPJC voiced concerns on the shelter’s proposed car wash, dog park, art garden, food trucks and outdoor rest “tubes.” Officials wondered who would work at the carwash and it they’d paid a living wage — “We doubt it.” Also, they asked “who are these amenities really for?”
Full Build

Layout of planned facility

”The risk is that (the shelter) becomes a ’human zoo,’ turning people experiencing homelessness a theme park spectacle while those with homes walk their dogs and enjoy food trucks,” reads a statement. “The cost is millions of dollars in overhead and salaries that won’t provide homes or move us closer to ending homelessness. The only thing this proposed shelter will do is absolve the guilt of those with homes who can now feel like progress is being made, even though it isn’t.”

Categories
News News Blog

Group Protests Poor Living Conditions at HUD-Subsidized Apartments

Holding signs that read “Hold Slumlords Accountable” or signs calling for inspections of various HUD-subsidized apartments, members of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (MSPJC) protested outside Serenity Towers on Highland Wednesday afternoon to bring awareness to the plight of Memphians living in substandard housing.

Serenity Towers, a senior living apartment complex, is owned by Global Ministries Foundation (GMF), a religious nonprofit that operates several apartment complexes subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Since last year, several of GMF’s properties have been found to contain black mold, bed bugs, plumbing leaks, and structural issues.

The nonprofit lost its HUD funding for two of those properties — Warren Apartments and Tulane Apartments — earlier this year for failing to correct violations. Those residents are supposed to be receiving HUD vouchers to move into new housing, but one Warren Apartments resident — Cynthia Crawford — at the protest on Wednesday said the residents are at a “standstill,” still living in mold-infested apartments, as they await those vouchers.

Serenity Towers has received several code enforcement violations for issues with bed bugs, and the property is being inspected again this week. GMF purchased the Serenity property in March 2014, and a spokesperson for the nonprofit, who asked to remain anonymous, said the group has spent more than $200,000 on efforts to eradicate bed bugs at Serenity. She says roughly 95 units there still have bed bug issues, but GMF has ordered new mattresses, box springs, and bed frames and will be replacing residents’ beds at no charge. The beds should arrive this week.

But MSPJC executive director Brad Watkins said, with only 50 city code inspectors on the force, the department is stretched too thin. Watkins suggested that the city renew its reserve code enforcement officers program, which allows volunteer citizens to assist with code inspections. Watkins said MSPJC could oversee the formation of tenant-based associations at all HUD-subsidized properties, and each of those associations could have a few volunteer reserve code inspectors to hold landlords accountable.

“This would be a godsend to code enforcement. They would have more eyes and ears on the ground,” Watkins said.

He said the center has reached out to code enforcement, but the department hasn’t responded to their request for the program’s renewal. The Memphis City Council passed an ordinance allowing for reserve code officers more than a year ago.

Watkins said other GMF-owned properties and HUD-subsidized properties across the city should be inspected, and if code enforcement is stretched too thin, volunteer tenant inspectors could assist.

“We have seen the living conditions that tenants have been made to live in by Rev. Richard Hamlet [of GMF] at Warren,Tulane, and now here at Serenity Towers, but what of the tenants at his other properties like Madison Tower and Bend Tree? What of the other HUD-subsidized properties owned by other companies like Peppertree or Tillman Cove? We are on the verge of a housing crisis and the Peace and Justice Center stands ready to aid in the solutions,” Watkins said.

Serenity Towers resident Gail Clark was standing outside the complex, waiting on a ride, while the protest was ongoing. She said her experience with management at Serenity had been largely positive, and she feels they’ve been responsive to residents’ concerns. She said they’d recently formed a tenants’ association to assist with critical needs.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Warren Apartments Resident Talks of Black Mold

CREDIT: Joshua Cannon

A Warren Apartments tenant will appeal what she says is a wrongful eviction following an altercation with a property manager that stemmed from a years-long black mold infestation and neglect on behalf of LEDIC Management and the Global Ministries Foundation (GMF).

“I have been dealing with black mold since day one,” said Warren Apartments Tenant Association co-founder Cynthia Crawford, who moved into the complex with her two children in February 2013. “I went to the maintenance office and asked [about it]. They told me to use bleach. Every time I did, it came back. In June of 2015, the previous property manager had a code enforcement retiree inspect the apartment, who said it was black mold.”

Joshua Cannon

Warren Apartments

Crawford’s complaints come as a voice among a chorus of tenants at the Warren and Tulane apartment complexes. Despite GMF spending more than $300,000 on repairs, both complexes failed twice last year to meet the minimum score of 60 required to pass a federal inspection — falling eight points below at 52. Hundreds of residents from the Section 8 housing will now be forced to relocate as the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) cracks down on GMF for failure to maintain livable conditions.

LEDIC did not respond to a request for an update on the relocation. Residents will receive a relocation voucher. HUD officials met with residents last week and said the process would likely begin in March.

GMF is an affordable housing initiative that seeks to provide shelter to low- and moderate-income residents around the United States. GMF CEO Reverend Richard Hamlet proposed a multi-million-dollar rehabilitation program for the two complexes that would use private capital funds. HUD denied the request.

“We’re all on poverty level, but I think we should at least have decent housing,” Crawford said. “We’re not asking for mansions or gold fixtures. We’re just asking for basic, decent housing.”

Three maintenance workers visited Crawford’s unit on Nov. 30th to repair water damage in her bathroom and attend to the mold. Property manager Betsy Waugh entered her apartment around 6:30 p.m., according to Crawford, and asked, “What’s the holdup?” When a senior maintenance attendant told Waugh about the mold, Crawford, unseen in the hallway, allegedly overheard Waugh say, “Don’t say that, just go ahead and cover it up [with sheetrock].”

Waugh, Crawford said, returned an hour later. Waugh allegedly became argumentative and started videotaping Crawford, which led Crawford to “get in [Waugh’s] face and curse her” before asking her to leave the unit. Waugh left and called the police, allegedly claiming Crawford assaulted her, which Crawford says did not occur. A police report was filed, and LEDIC Management issued Crawford a three-day eviction notice on Dec. 2nd. Crawford will appeal the eviction on March 3rd.

The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (MSPJC) helped the Warren Apartments Tenant Association create a strategy to bridge the gap between management and tenants. The Association has 26 members. Members who have spoken up at Shelby County Commission meetings have been threatened with eviction, says MSPJC executive director Brad Watkins.

“As most tenants do not know their rights, many landlords get over on people all the time for things that the law clearly states are landlord responsibilities,” Watkins said.

Renters often mistakenly make verbal agreements, Watkins says. People don’t fully understand their renter’s rights and other resources available to them.

“We see so many cases where if a person had just known what their rights were they could have avoided being taken advantage of by an unethical landlord,” Watkins said.

MSPJC will attempt to change this through their new renters’ rights project. The immediate goal is to train tenants on how to better understand their rights as renters and form their own associations. Watkins would like to create a Memphis Tenants Union.

“We have allowed slumlords to run amok for so long that now all of our chickens are coming home to roost, and Memphis is on the verge of a crisis in affordable housing,” Watkins said.

Categories
News News Blog

Mid-South Peace & Justice Center To Celebrate 33 Years

Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou

The Mid-South Peace & Justice Center’s (MSPJC) 33rd anniversary gala will feature the Rev.Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, an author, documentary filmmaker, and pastor who, most recently, worked on the ground in Ferguson on behalf of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the country’s oldest interfaith peace organization.

“Living the Legacy of Nonviolence” is scheduled for Saturday, January 17th at 5:30 p.m. at First Congreg
ational Church, where the MSPJC’s offices were located for years until their recent move to a space on Southern Avenue. Besides keynote speaker Sekou, the program will also feature entertainment by Barbara J Lester, the Memphis Drum Tribe, JazzEcclecticFolk featuring legendary recording artists Carla Thomas and Khari Wynn, and dance performances by Chris Reeder, Abigail Little, and hoopers from Co-Motion Studio.

A meal made with locally grown food will be provided by Just for Lunch. Tickets are $30 for the banquet. Or those who only want to come for the program can skip the meal and come at 7 p.m. There is a $10 suggested donation for that, but no one will be turned away if they can’t pay. 

“We want this night to not only be a night of reflection for all of us in the movement but also to celebrate how far we have come and set the course for the future,” said Brad Watkins, MSPJC executive director.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

A Roast for Jacob Flowers

Somehow former Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (MPJC) Executive Director Jacob Flowers managed to make a decade-long, full-time career out of being a hippie.

And now that he’s moved on to another — ahem, hippie — job pushing affordable health-care sign-ups at Enroll America, those who have worked with Flowers through the local social justice movement will have a chance to poke a little fun at Flowers at “Roast & Toast Jacob Flowers” on Thursday, June 26th, at the National Civil Rights Museum.

MPJC friend and wage-theft crusader Kyle Kordsmeier will M.C. the event. The list of roasters includes Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy, AFSMCE director Gail Tyree, Manna House’s Pete Gathje, Pezz punk rocker Ceylon Mooney, First Congo Church’s Julia Hicks, former MPJC Board Chair Emily Fulmer, and Flowers’ successor as MPJC director, Brad Watkins. Flowers’ family will finish out the roast with jokes from his mother Sandy Furrh and his wife Allison Glass.

Before the roast, cocktails will be served as folk-jazz-pop trio Sibella performs. After the roast is a performance by Memphis United member and up-and-coming local rapper Knowledge Nick. Tickets are $10 to reflect Flowers’ decade with the organization.

“I think it’s pretty gracious that Jacob is still raising money in support of the work this organization does, even after he departs,” Watkins says. “And I think there are a lot of people out there who would be jumping at the opportunity to do a roast on Jacob.”