A stop work order is posted on the front doors of the former Cypress Glen Nursing & Rehabilitation causing volunteers and a local pastor to find other accommodations for 10 homeless individuals, some of whom are veterans.
Of the group that left, three were placed in a hotel; two went to a women’s rescue facility in Beaumont; some were reunited temporarily with family; and the rest are back on the streets.
The pastor, Keith Richard of New World Harvest Church, has worked with the area’s homeless population for a number of years. He has been collaborating with Dr. Stanton Packard, a physician in San Antonio who owns the 75,000 square foot facility at 7200 9 th Ave. in Port Arthur.
Richard and Packard were working under the assumption that a certificate of occupancy was still valid; they recently learned it was not. This forced the closure of the building until permits are obtained.
Some of the last major news stories regarding the former nursing home made national news showing elderly residents in hospital beds and wheelchairs surrounded by Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters in 2017.
In the nearly seven years that passed, the former nursing home has been gutted, remediated and repaired.
Ideas for use of the site range from a veterans/homeless shelter’ children’s shelter for youth who are wards of the state; or a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, though none of these ideas can come to fruition without a certificate occupancy, inspections, permits, and possible zoning change if applicable.
On Wednesday, Richard, Packard, and volunteer Rey Marvie met with media to explain their dreams for the site.
Packard said he doesn’t want to go against the city.
“I don’t want to go contrary to the regulations,” Packard said. “But I also want to maximize the resources that I have … I don’t want to say I could have done something and I jammed up on some obscure rule. Sorry I stepped on their toes but there are a couple of people that are alive today because of it.”
One of those people who are alive because of the care of Richard and Packard is a 73-year-old man who had been living on the streets in Beaumont.
The man had been struck by a truck and after being treated had been dropped off at the Salvation Army where he was able to stay for two days, Richard said.
The elderly man left the facility, got around the corner and his wheelchair became stuck in a gutter, leaving him stuck and unable to move.
The man was stuck for two days, had no food and had urinated and defecated on himself. The pastor and the doctor brought the man to the Port Arthur site where they cleaned and cared for him.
Packard had some cold pancakes in the refrigerator — all that he had at that moment — and the man grabbed the food with his soiled hands and practically inhaled it.
The man was brought to a hospital where they learned he had pneumonia in one lung, was severely dehydrated, disoriented, was septic and was literally dying, Packard said. The man is doing better and was relocated to a site in Houston.
Social media posts tell of the city’s illegal secret homeless shelter operating at the former Cypress Glen facility citing health and safety hazards.
“It’s a little bit of what’s first, the chicken or the egg,” Packard said. “They want us to tell them what it’s going to be before they zone it but we don’t know that yet. We have several options and each might be zoned differently.”
Packard said he was going to visit city hall and see what his options are for the site and hopefully get an updated certificate of occupancy, even if it’s for one person.
Richard would like to see the facility become a one-stop shop of sorts that would have individuals housed temporarily, receive health care, connect with social services, and later find employment and a home or apartment.
Richard has used the assistance of several veterans to maintain site security and maintenance.
“We have an eight-year veteran who’s not on drugs, who goes to my church that was staying here as security. He’s actually an RN. We had another guy that was here doing all the cooking and also night maintenance,” Richard said. “We also had another young guy that was a veteran, young, in his early 20s, he was here for security. So we had three volunteers for security here.”
While there is no official operating kitchen with large stoves and other equipment, there is a rice cooker, and other small electric appliances as well as refrigerators.
Marvie, who is a pilot, has been nicknamed “Captain Rey” by Packard. A San Antonio resident Marvie has helped at the Cypress Glen site in a sort of managerial position organizing things and assigning rooms, he said.
When asked why, he answered simply,” I’m a pilot. I have a lot of free time and I want to do something good.”
Marvie told of a nearby homeless encampment in which the inhabitants lost everything in the heavy rains several weeks ago.
The volunteers went shopping, using their own money, to help those in need.
He said he’d like to see those who come in with nothing to leave with a job, be able to feed themselves and have a place to stay.
“This is what I’d love to see in this building, helping the community, helping the people,” Marvie said.
The health care needs of the homeless individuals are being met. Richard has worked with Gulf Coast Health Center at his church on Jade Avenue and has worked to have the health center’s mobile unit visit the site every other week, he said.
Since there has been some negative comments regarding the 9 th Avenue site, Packard said there is an option to bring his plan to another location.
“I just wanted it to be here because it was available right when they needed it but I’m open to pivoting, relocating,” he said. “We will find a purpose for the building that won’t turn the stomachs of the wealthy.”
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