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Homeless Coalition short on funds, scraps day care [Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne](Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, WY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 21--CHEYENNE -- Nearly a decade after acquiring it, the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless is giving up its efforts to repurpose the Richards Center. In a release on Monday, the coalition's executive director, Rachel Bennett, said her board of directors voted in September to divest itself of the Richards Center. That former Naval Reserve training building is located at 4700 Ocean Loop in northeast Cheyenne. While the coalition is most well known for its Welcome Mat homeless day center at 907 Logan Ave., it acquired the Richards Center in 2005. At that time, the goal was to turn it into a day care and education center for homeless families. The vision of the coalition's founder, the late Virginia Sellner, was a place where families could drop off their children while they looked for work or housing. Eventually, she hoped expansion would include its own workforce education classrooms. Upon Sellner's death in October 2012, the coalition's board of directors revisited the Richards Center. They launched fundraising efforts to pay its utility bills as well as for the many renovations required before the city would permit a day care center there. But last month, board members decided those efforts simply weren't enough to get the building where it needed to be without hurting the existing services the Welcome Mat offers. "We definitely put a lot of energy into it, and we wanted to see the vision come through," board chairwoman Mary Schneider said. "It came down to the evaluation of the current financial situation and the amount it would cost to do the required upgrades to meet the city's permit requirements." Bennett said that the coalition operates on a budget of only about $40,000 a year. Since Sellner's death, it has spent more than $32,000 on the Richards Center, paying utility bills and working to get it to code. "Half of our budget at least was going into that building," Bennett said. "Opening a day care is not something the city takes lightly, and we just didn't have the resources to comply. "It just wasn't feasible for us to continue to help the homeless at our day shelter and continue the efforts there." Efforts now are underway to return the Richards Center to the federal government, though it's unclear how long that process will take. But until then, the coalition must continue to pay the utility costs. In the meantime, the coalition is planning an open house for 9 a.m.-noon on Nov. 15 to sell all items left in the Richards Center. Proceeds will go toward operational costs necessary to support the coalition's other efforts. As for what direction the coalition will take from here on, Bennett said the plan is to reinvest in Welcome Mat and introduce new programs for the clients who use it. "We're seeking from grants for some computer resources," Bennett said. "One thing we're trying to do is have more of a resource for computer-based training that homeless clientele can make use of." And Bennett said the coalition still is hoping to find willing partners to establish a day care center for homeless families sometime in the future. "There's no facility right now to help homeless families with day care," she said. "There may be opportunities to partner with another church or nonprofit." ___ (c)2014 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.) Visit Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.) at www.wyomingnews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |