Anti-homelessness advocates met with the mayor Friday afternoon to pitch an ambitious plan for a new, all-encompassing, multi-million-dollar facility on River Street.
About two dozen activists and homeless people gathered in a second-floor meeting room in City Hall Friday. They met with Mayor Toni Harp, her chief of staff, the head of the Community Services Administration, and top housing authority officials Karen DuBois-Walton and Jimmy Miller.
Marcey Jones (pictured at the top of the story), Wendy Hamilton, and Yul Watley (pictured above), organizers behind the proposed new project, laid out the details of their vision.
They want the city to let them build on a couple acres of a nine-acre parcel at 109 River Street, now mostly vacant lots. The new facility would include all-in-one office space, housing for 150 homeless people, a free health clinic, and a farm.
Watley said the project could cost $15 million to $20 million. Jones put the figure at $3 million to $5 million. They don’t have a developer and said they don’t yet know where they would find funding.
“It seems like you’ve done a lot of thinking,” said Mayor Harp. “I take it very seriously.”
Harp said she would form a team of city staffers to look into the proposal. “That’s my commitment to you.”