Event to bring Day Resource Center information to community

EAU CLAIRE — Multiple meetings to inform the community about the day resource center are planned for next month.

The DRC is a singular space for people who are homeless to receive help from multiple sources. The goal is to provide a one-stop resource where people can access services.

The city will not be the ones making the final decision of where the resource center will be because it’s not theirs. Western Dairyland will own the facility and it will be managed by Hope Gospel Mission.

Eau Claire does have control over what pieces of city land it can offer and the $500,000 Rescue Plan Act funds they have offered to the creation of the DRC. Plans call for a potential space they can offer chosen by July 1, said City Manager Stephanie Hirsch in a city council meeting.

“We are hoping to identify a site that is viable, “ said Hirsch. “It doesn’t have to be the final site but it’s one that allows the group to proceed. If there is not one identified it does pose a risk to the project. It will have to be paused.”

The current location of the Community Haven House’s lease will be up by May which will lead them to close their services in April, said Billie Hufford in the same meeting.

In the city council meeting Hirsch identified the spaces the city could possibly choose including Wilson Park, Barstow and Seaver Parking Lot, and the already proposed Main Street and Farwell Street Parking Lot.

The city recently announced it had planned to declare the parking lot on Main and Farwell as excess land for it to be available for the DRC.

This was opposed by members of the community, including the lot’s neighbor Rose Johnson, who owns Offbeats Violin and Guitar Studio.

Johnson said she agrees that people who are homeless need a space where they can get help. She also wanted people to consider the safety of the families and kids utilizing her school.

The lot the city planned to declare as excess land was also not excess land, said Johnson. It is incredibly important to the businesses next to it and was one of the reasons she bought the building.

Following the community response to labeling the lot as excess land the City Plan Commission chose to unanimously not recommend it to the council.

The commission’s vote and community input had caused the council to not vote on making the location excess land and instead host a work session, said City Community Development Director Aaron White.

According to Dale Karls, the Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council Communications Coordinator, they are still in their early stages and are working on a feasibility study to see if the DRC would work with the rest of Eau Claire and be able to be supported by the community through a fundraising campaign.

Karls said they will have the results in August and will use them to choose whether they will continue to create the center.