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Resident urges Springfield council to help keep Phoenix Center open; council to collect contact information
Summary
A resident told council the Phoenix Center, a local LGBTQ and HIV services organization, faces imminent closure due to leadership and frozen state grant funding; the council agreed to collect contact information and have the council coordinator circulate follow-up.
At the March 16 Springfield City Council meeting, resident Justin Courtney told the council the Phoenix Center — a local LGBTQ and HIV services organization — is at risk of permanently closing because of leadership and funding problems.
Courtney said he was not affiliated with the Phoenix Center but had spent the weekend reaching out to private funders. He described the situation as urgent: “This is an emergency. They need help now, not in 3 years, not after another study,” and asked council members to share contact information so he could follow up with them the next day.
Courtney said state grant funding for the Phoenix Center had been temporarily frozen and that, as he understood it, the center operated a shelter he believed was 14 beds but added he was not certain of that specific detail. "I’m not affiliated with the Phoenix Center... I’m a private citizen doing this in my spare time," he told the council.
Mayor Bucher and other council members asked Courtney to provide his information to the council coordinator so it could be distributed to all members. The coordinator (Griffin) was identified as the conduit to share Courtney’s materials with council. No formal appropriation or motion to allocate city funds was made during the meeting; Courtney asked for help and indicated he would continue soliciting private funders and contacting potential partners.
The council did not take formal action during the meeting to guarantee city support; the immediate next step recorded in the meeting was to have the coordinator circulate Courtney’s contact information and materials to members.
