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'God's plan' meets resistance

A pastor wants to rent out two Capron Street trailers to the needy. Residents wonder how that might change the makeup of their neighborhood.

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published June 5, 2006

[Times photo: Lance Aram Rothstein]

Capron Street residents in New Port Richey gather in front of one of two trailers Calvary Chapel Worship Center wants to rent out to single mothers. Instead, the residents want it removed. One resident's recent call to Pasco County building inspectors resulted in officials starting the condemnation process against the empty trailer.

NEW PORT RICHEY - When Rev. Robert Reed sees the two trailers on the sandy lot, he sees God's plan for Capron Street at work.

That plan calls for using the trailers as temporary rental housing for people, especially single mothers, who struggle to pay the bills or leave behind abusive relationships.

"Our heart is to help get them on their feet," said Reed, a pastor at Calvary Chapel Worship Center. "We're here to help them up, a rung at a time."

Opal Adkins looks at the trailers - one occupied by a woman and her two children since late last month, the other still empty - and sees only bad times ahead for Capron Street. On Thursday, the 18-year resident of the neighborhood put a "for sale" sign in her yard, saying she worried who would be living at the site.

"If any shooting breaks out," said Adkins, 65, "I don't want to be here."

Here is where Calvary Chapel Worship Center, a large New Port Richey nondenominational church that attracts about 4,000 worshippers every week, is learning that good intentions don't necessarily inspire a chorus of approval.

Neighbors upset about the church's plans have criticized the way the nonprofit group that owns the trailers followed the permitting process and the aesthetics of the 30-year-old trailers. One resident's recent call to Pasco County building inspectors resulted in officials on Friday starting the condemnation process against the empty trailer, declaring the home to be unsuitable because of heavy moisture damage and a bedroom ceiling that is falling.

At the heart of the neighbors' complaints is this: How will the rental units and future tenants change this working class neighborhood where home ownership is such a point of pride?

"We fought tooth and nail for this peace and quiet," said Leona Moore, whose home is adjacent to the empty trailer. "I understand they're trying to help people, but why should we suffer?"

Reed said he did not think the rental housing posed a threat to the neighborhood. He said church leaders want to have a good relationship with the neighbors, but his group has a mission.

"We can't let incidents like this deter us from moving forward and helping people," said the pastor, who had not received notice of the county's condemnation but said he thought the trailer could be fixed.

"Even if there's opposition, God has charged us with doing this. We'll be here a long time, until Jesus comes back."

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The Capron Street lot and trailers are owned by Community Outreach Center, a nonprofit organization legally separate from the church but with obvious ties. Reed, for instance, is the director of the center, which also runs eight rental apartment units on Stone Road in Port Richey and is clearing land for a community center to offer free medical and educational services in Moon Lake Estates.

Reed said the priority tenants for housing are single mothers, especially those leaving the battered women's shelter in Hudson or homeless shelters. Under the program, the tenants agree to abide by certain rules - like no smoking or overnight guests - and agree to unannounced inspections by Reed.

Prospective tenants must undergo a background check, and convicted sex offenders and other violent criminals are not eligible to live in the units, he said.

"Are we selective? Yes," he said. "Are there things I don't know about people? Sure."

The tenants are not required to attend church, he said, but must participate in programs such as anger management or parenting skills classes, most of which Calvary offers through one of its ministries.

"If you had a cure for cancer, wouldn't you deliver it to the hospitals?" Reed asked. "God has given us a cure for what ails."

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Located in an unincorporated area off Trouble Creek Road, Capron Street is a two-block, working-class neighborhood of cabinetmakers and small contractors, retirees who keep their boats in the yard and children who race inside from the afternoon heat and stand, grateful, before the open refrigerator door.

It is a quiet community, neighbors say, and one that some of them have worked hard to live in.

"We all get up, go to work, pay our bills and sometimes we struggle," said Leona Moore, who works as a teleservicer, answering phone calls for businesses from home.

Standing in the street with her husband, Joe, and a couple of other families in the neighborhood, Moore said she didn't have a problem with the women who would be living on the property and was coming to accept that at least the one trailer would stay on the property. Indeed, she likes the woman who already has moved in, and their daughters have been playing together.

"It's not the single women," she said. "It's the boyfriends who show up."

The single woman who is their new neighbor in the trailer is Diane Jamieson, who has a 12-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son and left the home she had been sharing with her boyfriend. Late last week, she sat in her kitchen, decorated with her children's paintings and drawings on the walls, a lighthouse curio in the window.

She asked her son, who yelled his age as he searched for a purple flavored ice in the freezer, to use his "inside voice."

Jamieson pays about $132 a week in rent, an amount that includes power. A fundraising telemarketer for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, she is a member of the church . Money is tight enough that she doesn't have a telephone and has to make use of the church's food pantry.

Outside, her neighbors had started to go back inside. Jamieson said she could understand some of their concerns.

"If I'd had a home that I worked hard for, then having two trailers dumped in...," she said.

The rent isn't cheap, she said, but it's giving her a chance to catch her breath. She plans to stay for a while.

"I guess I'll keep to myself," she said.

Jodie Tillman can be reached at 727 869-6247 or by e-mail at JTillman@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 5, 2006, 06:07:21]