During the public-comment portion of the Dec. 12 Richmond Board of Commissioners meeting, Monica Barnes, representing Madison County Haven of Hope, told the commission she and her organization have "agreed to obtain a facility" that could allow the group to begin operating an emergency overnight shelter "within the next couple of weeks," subject to volunteer and community help.

"We've been working for months to find a suitable property," Barnes said, adding that she had met with planning and zoning, the city manager, the city attorney, the fire marshal and building inspector to ensure the site is appropriate. She said volunteers and prayerful community support will be essential and acknowledged she has not yet fully funded the acquisition but had signed necessary paperwork and is seeking community backing.

Jamie Jordan, introduced as director of housing for Enrich ("Enrich 1 Stop" in the transcript), described a housing continuum that includes a low-barrier emergency shelter, transitional living homes and resource navigators to connect people with employment and services. "We have this whole continuum in place where folks that are ready to get back on their feet... have now the resources and the folks that are willing to help," Jordan said.

Molly Zany (as spoken in the record) described daily hands-on work feeding and assisting dozens of people and warned one shelter may not be enough to meet local needs. "One shelter may not be enough... We may need both," she said, urging leniency, grace and additional community support.

City Manager (unnamed) told commissioners there will be a work session on Dec. 18 at noon to invite the nonprofits to discuss coordination and support. He also noted the city's clean audit and the successful management and auditing of ARPA funds received during the COVID response.

What this means: Haven of Hope and partner nonprofits described an active plan to open local emergency shelter capacity quickly but emphasized remaining funding and staffing needs; the city scheduled a follow-up work session to coordinate with nonprofits.