LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On Tuesday, community organizations and architects saw just how much work is cut out for them on the site of the proposed Community Care Campus.
"The opportunity is absolutely there, but -- to be frank -- this is a big project," Di Tran said, who is the head of the New American Business Association in Louisville.
The city wants to turn the block between Breckenridge, Brook and College Streets into a hub for houseless outreach services, including medical respite care, family housing, overnight shelter and more.
The city opened a Request For Proposal for the site last Thursday, and Tuesday was a chance for interested parties to tour the site. Attending this tour was a requirement for any organization that is interested in submitting a response to the RFP.
Among the organizations who attended were Norton Healthcare, Mayor Craig Greenberg's Office, Addiction Recovery Care (ARC), Volunteers of America, APK Development and Construction and Studio A Architects.
"Partnership is the only thing that's going to make this work," Marilyn Harris, director of the Metro Office of Housing and Community Development, said.
Harris led the tour group through the buildings that were in various states of distress.
The building that was the most ready for action was the C2 Event Space. The Vu Hotel had rooms with mattresses and pillows, but alcohol containers littered some rooms. There was a "restaurant" on the west edge of the property that was never finished; the ceiling was ripped open and many pipes were exposed.
"In the kitchen, it appears to me that it has been broken into, and all the copper has been stripped. When they transferred the deed to us for these properties, they essentially took what they wanted and left everything else," Harris said.
Harris emailed WHAS11 Wednesday morning saying there is $2 million dollars set aside in the FY 2024 budget to, "acquire additional property on this block and fund improvements to existing building already located on the Community Care Campus."
WHAS11 spoke to Vocal KY Director Shameka Parrish-Wright last week who said she was frustrated with a lack of communication from the city on the Care Campus, and also that she was unclear how much funding the different organizations needed to contribute.
"This is a big project. There are multiple big buildings. I don't think as an organization of our size -- privately and publicly -- we can handle this ourselves," Tran said.
Tran had the idea, and pitched it to the group, that they all submit one response to the RFP together. He hopes this will give them, and this project, the best chance at succeeding.
Donny Greene of Feed Louisville said last week he was planning on going to the tour but decided against it after an "internal discussion" with other leaders of the nonprofit.
"Requiring organizations to 'pay to offer services' will result in organizations having fewer resources/dollars to deliver services to the thousands of houseless individuals who need and deserve our support," Greene said.
The RFP is open until August 11. Deputy Mayor Nicole George said they could be open to allowing organizations that didn't attend the tour to be a part of the project.
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