[October 06, 2008]

Chattanooga: Motel may become homeless housing

(Chattanooga Times (Free Press, TN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 6--Tommy and Penny Peak have a dream, albeit a costly one.

The Chattanooga couple would like to see an area hotel converted into a transitional housing center.

The Peaks had their eyes on the Town & Country Inn on 23rd Street, where their Grace in Action Ministry is headquartered. But the absentee owners recently signed a contract on the property, which had been for sale for $2.5 million.

Steven Bernstein, of Atlanta, who owns the hotel with his brother, David, said the new owners are willing to talk with the couple and have no new plans for the property.

The hotel, through the couple's ministry, currently houses about 45 people a night who cannot be accommodated by other social service agencies such as the Salvation Army or Red Cross, who have been sponsored by churches or who otherwise are homeless.

In 2007, according to ministry figures, Grace in Action assisted more than 200 families.

Mr. Peak, who works as an assistant manager at the Town & Country, said he hopes a local hotel can become "a one-stop shopping center" for people in need.

Their ministry is the only one in the area willing to take in entire families for an extended stay, Mr. Peak said. Some shelters do not take men, and others do not allow older teenage boys, he said.

The Interfaith Hospitality Network offers entire families housing through its network of churches, but that housing moves from church to church each week.

Mr. Bernstein said the Peaks' ministry has helped the hotel's image.

"It's a positive thing for the community and the hotel," he said.

The Peaks said such a "Dream Center" would be similar to one with the same name in Los Angeles, a place where people in need might find help securing a job, getting their GED, getting food stamps or getting a driver's license, identification card or Social Security card.

Families in transition would pay or have a sponsor pay $175.86 a week or $660 a month in rent while they get on their feet, he said, basing the figures on the Town & Country. The amount would include toiletries, utilities, cable, some transportation and one or two meals a day, he said.

Also like the Dream Center in Los Angeles, he said, some people would work on the premises to help run it and "put back" something for what they have been given.

Ted and Monica Beahl and their two sons, 15 and 6, have been living in the motel for about two months after they had to leave their home in Soddy-Daisy. When the Homeless Health Care Center could not find them a place to stay, Grace in Action Ministries agreed to put them up.

Mrs. Beahl, 34, said they are on the waiting list for public housing and that when her husband finishes his current hepatitis treatment, he will return to work. In the meantime, she said, the Peaks "mentor to us. They're spiritual advisors. Anything I need, I go to them, from toilet paper to church."

Mr. Peak said the ministry works under the nonprofit auspices of Power Plant Ministry Center and Grace Christian Center, but he hopes it will gain its own nonprofit status.

Grace in Action Ministries now is supported by churches, businesses and individuals but receives no government funds because of its faith component. The ministry requires its clients to attend one or two church services a week.

"We don't want the government to tell us what we can and cannot do in terms of churches," Mr. Peak said.

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