CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – After the Clarksville Finance Committee moved forward an ordinance to purchase The Well outreach center, the City of Clarksville and Urban Ministries have scheduled a public meeting to clarify the proposal and answer questions from the community.
City Neighborhood and Community Services Director Michelle Austin previously said the plan is to add laundry facilities, showers and ADA-accessible bathrooms to the building, at 224 Union St. on the south side of downtown, while also expanding on services already offered, including meals and community support.
She also discussed Urban Ministries’ emergency warming shelter and said the Madison United Methodist Church has sheltered the unhoused for the last three years while balancing preschool services. Austin said the services would transition the individuals “already being served at this location” one block down, according to previous reports.
Vision of serving homeless from one location
The meeting is set for this Friday at 6 p.m. in the fellowship hall of the Madison Street UMC, with the entrance at 300 Commerce St. Urban Ministries Executive Director Jodi McBryant told Clarksville Now she encourages the community to come out for the meeting.
“We’re going to talk about the concept, the vision, how this project that we are proposing came to be. One of the reasons we’re going to address that is that there are a lot of people who are saying, ‘Why here, why not somewhere else?’” McBryant said. “We want everyone to know that this has been a process that Urban Ministries has been looking to do for almost three years.”…