Columbia residents grill mayor, city about proposed homeless campus. Some left unsatisfied.

After hearing of plans for a potential campus to house and provide services for chronically homeless people, Columbia residents say they are still looking for more details — and a meaningful dialogue with city leaders about their concerns — before this nascent project takes any steps forward.

This week provided the first chance residents have been given to publicly comment on the city’s plans to build a new homeless services campus and relocate existing services away from downtown, a proposed project estimated to cost at least $30 million.

The idea for the new campus, dubbed the Hope Center, has divided many in the city over questions about the cost of construction, where it will be located and whether the proposal respects and fully considers the homeless residents it would seek to care for.

On Monday, residents came out in force to ask those questions, and some left still carrying concerns.

Ongoing work

Columbia leaders for the past several years have been discussing how to reduce the number of homeless residents loitering in business districts including Main Street and the Vista. The goal, leaders have said, is both to address longstanding quality-of-life issues for businesses and visitors, while also connecting chronically homeless residents with needed addiction, housing and job services.

There are at least 334 chronically unsheltered residents living in Richland County, according to an annual estimate, but that count is likely low and doesn’t include people who couch-surf or stay in motels.

The Columbia Police Department has cleared 24 homeless encampments this year alone. Half of them were in downtown.

The city’s attention on addressing homelessness downtown has raised alarm bells for some. The ACLU of South Carolina last year accused the city of criminalizing homelessness after the city passed an ordinance making it illegal to have a stolen shopping cart and changing the warning rules for urban camping, among other policies. City leaders say the attention being paid to homeless residents is just as much about getting people housing and medical care as it is about cleaning up downtown.

The city’s goal for the proposed homeless services campus is to “reduce the number of unsheltered individuals in the community by providing them with a safe and sanitary haven with wrap-around resources onsite,” according to one of Monday’s poster boards.

The campus would have on-site medical providers, job counselors, substance abuse treatment, government services such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and a variety of other services meant to make the campus a one-stop shop for chronically homeless residents.

A rendering of the campus by Garvin Design Group includes room for up to 5 housing towers, each with 100-125 beds, a community center, dog kennels, walking trails and storefronts for things like hair salons.

The project is estimated to cost a minimum of $30 million. So far, the City Council has not taken any public action for or against the campus. The city doesn’t have money dedicated to the campus, and Columbia did not get $10 million it anticipated getting from the state’s 2024-2025 budget.

The city doesn’t currently have land to build the project on. Last fall city representatives began the process to buy Department of Mental Health property on Farrow Road adjacent to the Crafts-Farrow State Hospital, but the city and the state agency were not able to agree on terms for that land. As of Monday, the city has not executed a contract for any property for the Hope Center, Mayor Daniel Rickenmann confirmed.

The campus’ location will be a big factor in whether residents support the campus, several people who attended Monday’s meeting said.

“I understand they need to be placed somewhere, but not in this area,” said Lois Rogers, a Greenview resident who attended Monday’s event alongside several neighbors whose main opposition was locating the campus in the 29203 zip code in north Columbia.

It feels like the city is relocating a problem into a community that already feels ignored, Rogers added.

“We don’t want anything pushed down our throats,” added Ida Thompson, who leads the Greenview Reunion Foundation.

The Crafts-Farrow State Hospital, which houses state inmates with mental health needs, is located at the intersection of Farrow Road and Interstate 20, and is about 1.5 miles from Greenview Park. The city is looking at land adjacent to that property for the campus.

That location is still a possibility, but the city may have to look at alternatives if the Department of Mental Health doesn’t agree to sell the city the land, Rickenmann said.

Public feedback

Several residents Monday said they were worried about the format the city was using to gather public feedback on the homeless services project.

“Tonight, while it looks good, there is no dialogue,” Thompson, with the Greenview Reunion Foundation, said.

Many residents expected a public question-and-answer component to Monday’s meeting and said they were disappointed that there was no formal presentation, but rather a drop-in event where residents could read information from the city and individually ask questions of city leaders who were present.

Thompson did eventually get to sit down with Rickenmann, as did several of her neighbors. Her group spent several minutes pressing the mayor with questions about why the Farrow Road location is being considered.

At several points Monday, Rickenmann was surrounded by residents in similar impromptu Q&A sessions. But the format left some people feeling like the city was purposefully trying to avoid answering direct questions.

“I came hoping to engage with leaders of my community,” but the meeting was not as accessible as it should have been, said e.k. hoffman, senior policy advisor for the advocacy group New Disabled South. (Editor’s note: hoffman uses lowercase letters to spell their name.)

No council members were wearing name tags Monday, and in order to try to speak with someone directly, hoffman had to Google what council members look like. The event felt like a way to let people feel involved, hoffman said, but they are skeptical that the public’s concerns will be taken seriously.

Ericka Brown, who runs the homeless outreach nonprofit Be Kind, Be Great, said she felt the event was a little misleading because she anticipated a public Q&A. Still, she said she hopes to be a part of the conversation about the Hope Center.

“I think it’s a good faith effort,” she said of the campus idea, but she is skeptical of centralizing homeless residents away from downtown. She said she also worries the city hasn’t developed the types of relationships needed to build trust with chronically homeless residents who can be resistant toward accepting help from institutions.

“To reach a lot of these individuals, it starts with trust,” Brown said.

Homeless services providers have also raised questions about transportation for people using the would-be campus, and if homeless residents will be willing to use the service once its complete.

Everyone Monday agreed on at least one thing: The city is a long way from making the campus a reality.

“In my mind, this is A, not Z,” said Councilman Peter Brown, whose district covers the eastern portion of the city near Forest Acres.

Brown said he is on board with the mayor’s goals for the project, but he agreed it will be expensive and require a lot of attention.

Rickenmann said he felt the session was productive and that he is genuine about wanting public input and ideas. There will likely be more public information sessions like Monday’s, he added.

Columbia Homeless Campus Input Session Presentation 6.17.24 by Morgan Hughes on Scribd