No children’s home at 806 N. Union, planning commission rules

NATCHEZ — The city’s planning commission said no Thursday night to a request for a special exception to operate 806 N. Union St. as a children’s home again.

Bishop Stanley Searcy of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, which owns the property, asked the planning commission to reconsider his request after the commission first considered it on June 9, which resulted in a tie.

Natchez city attorney Jack Lazarus said it was appropriate for the planning commission to reconsider the request because the tie vote neither approved nor denied it, meaning the property owners had no decision to appeal to the Natchez Board of Aldermen.

After rehearing comments from those for and against such use at the public hearing Thursday, the commission voted along racial lines, 5 to 3, to not approve a special exception for the property. Commissioner Mildred Chapman made that motion, which was seconded by Commissioner Charles Harris. Chapman, Harris, and Commissioner Emma Rose Jackson voted yes for the approval. All three are Black. Commissioners Dan Hays-Clark, Denise Sebastian, Butch Johnson, Marcia McCullough, and Cheryl Rinehart, all white, voted against the approval.

Further, Commissioner Butch Johnson made a motion to deny the special exception request, seconded by Commissioner Marcia McCullough. Chapman, Harris, and Jackson voted no on that motion. Johnson, McCullough, Hays-Clerk, Sebastian, and Rinehart voted yes.

Commissioner Jonathan Smith was absent from the meeting.

The children’s home, which has operated under various names, opened in 1816 by a charitable organization made up of women to care for orphaned children in the Mississippi Territory.

In 2009, the facility stopped housing children as the focus of Natchez Children’s Service, which was operating the children’s home, changed its focus to placing children in foster homes.

Searcy asked the commission why the status as a children’s home was being changed now.

“Why, at this particular point, is it that you changed the status? How can you go from grandfathering in that use since before the civil war to saying it could not be used as a children’s home now,” Searcy asked. “What I am asking the board to do is the right thing because we were closed because of COVID. We shut down the school in 2020 because we didn’t want to violate rules because of COVID.”

Searcy and the church operated a school at the former children’s home for a short time prior to COVID.

Natchez City Planner Frankie Legaux said once the facility stopped operating for six months as a home for children, its grandfather status was lost under the city ordinances that govern such.

The church leased the facility to Dr. Tina Bruce in 2022, who operated a home for troubled teenagers. However, the facility only operated briefly. The city shut down the facility because it said Bruce had applied for a license to operate a daycare rather than a crisis stabilization center.

“If Tina Bruce’s name was not connected with this, we would not be having this hearing,” said Commissioner Chapman. “All of this is about Tina Bruce.”

Further, Chapman read from what she said was state law regarding grandfathered uses for businesses.

“They don’t need a special exception to operate,” Chapman said. “Unless that building is torn down, they keep their grandfathered status.”

Shauna de Brun, a resident of 806 N. Union, said more than 70 letters opposing the facility were submitted to the city.

“This is a residential historic district…The 2015 ordinance to stop non-conforming uses in a residential district is perfectly clear. The planning commission must adhere to the ordinance,” which prohibits the establishment of a child care center, detention center, halfway house, rehabilitation center or detox center.

Another resident, who said she lived across the street from the center, complained about the facility when Bruce operated the crisis stabilization unit there.

“We had no notification that those children were placed over there. And they got out. They left those children without proper security and supervision. Children kill,” the resident said.

Natchez resident Lee Ford called the white members of the planning commission racist.

“It’s obvious to me that we don’t have a voice with African American people on this forum. We have nine people — three Blacks and Six Whites. We don’t have no voice here,” Ford said. “I think this is racial motivation here. I feel like bigotry is going on here. This commission’s only concern is Tina Bruce…This is racially motivated.”

Resident Joseph Honeycutt said the children from Bruce’s crisis stabilization unit were “at war” with the neighborhood.

“That’s why they shut that place down. There were no guards, no security, nothing. I don’t believe that should be the situation. Kids kill,” Honeycutt said.

Resident Bob Adams said the issue wasn’t a home for orphaned children.

“That is not the business model of Tina Bruce,” Adams said.

He said it’s about money, not helping children. He said that when considering what the facility gets from the state for housing the children and what it pays for individual therapy sessions with children, it could bring in $3.9 million annually.

“The state pays $500 per day for each of the 20 beds. It’s about the money. They are taking this money and dumping this in a low-income black neighborhood…That building was designed as an orphanage for non-violent children. This is not a children’s home. It is not going to be a children’s home. This business model is a psychiatric treatment facility.”

Adams seemed to suggest it was possible that donations could have been made to the church in exchange for its support of Bruce’s facility.

Searcy reacted angrily to that suggestion.

“You accused me of taking money from Tina Bruce, and that is a bald-faced lie,” Searcy said.

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