The Jordan Valley Community Health Center is nestled in among former and renovated industrial sites, conspicuous greenspaces, overpasses, gravel and rail lines that mark the valley between the north side of the square in Springfield and Chestnut Expressway.
It is a corner of the city often out of sight of the public, but it is well populated — by residential tenants in the lofts nearby, corporate partners and Missouri State University staff at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center — and individuals experiencing homelessness, who may find spaces to camp overnight in the sprawl and often move through the area on the way between downtown and the northside.
Jordan Valley Community Health CEO Brooks Miller said they saw this homeless population in their neighborhood and took an opportunity to serve them. Miller said they offered toilet services, hand-washing services, screenings for health needs and oral health, a cup of coffee and a granola bar.
For other long-term tenants and neighbors of the health center, this outreach was not just serving a population that was in the area but increasing the number of people lingering there, while ultimately providing limited resources. A series of complaints led Jordan Valley Health to choose to stop their outreach.
Allen Kunkel, director of the Jordan Valley Innovation Center, said his organization did not complain directly to the city but did log complaints with MSU's Department of Safety. Kunkel described an uptick in complaints of loitering and trespassing, issues that put the health center’s effort at odds with the Innovation Center and a multi-decade's long revitalization of this corner of downtown.
"The biggest issue,” Kunkel said, “is the visibility of this site impacts this vision and the business intents we have worked hard to build into this area.”
Lindsey Schopp from Springfield Loft Apartments LCC, which has had property near Jordan Valley and elsewhere downtown for decades, said that after the outreach began, they saw an increase in issues with people camping on their property, often in unsafe places, and an increase in human waste. She said she felt the outreach was doing little substantial work to help the population.
The health center’s Brooks Miller said he felt the work served the mission of Jordan Valley Heath, and he understands popular perceptions about homelessness but believes those perceptions are challenged by the realities of the issue. Miller said he is informed by his experience in healthcare which has taught him the need to meet people where they are.
“A lot of these people have a lot of difficulties,” Miller explained, “and they are probably able to navigate systems and get through days that I could never do. You’ve got to go into it without judgement or anything and evolve relationships, and that’s really how you change health outcomes — is having relationships with people.”
Adam Bodendieck is director of Homeless Services for the Community Partnership of the Ozarks and is with the Ozark Alliance to End Homelessness. He said overcoming perceptions and creating room for nuance in the conversation can be a challenge in addressing homelessness — both when it comes to assessing what challenges an individual might be facing and when it comes to understanding what resources are available and needed. And that, he said, “can be frustrating because when you’re experiencing it, when you’re looking at it, when you’re dealing with it day-in and day-out, it's tough. People want solutions, understandably, and this is on all sides, and all the different stakeholders and people affected, you want easy clear answers and solutions.”
One solution on the horizon is an ARPA funded, purpose driven day center for Springfield. Another: Growing collaboration and building capacity. These things are at the heart of what Bodendieck does, and he said no matter the organization, the core goal of any project is sustainability, and that means bringing stakeholders to the table, including neighbors and community members. At the time of filing this story Bodendieck said the Ozarks Alliance to End Homelessness had plans to bring Jordan Valley Health to the table for a meeting, though no clear agenda was available.
Brooks Miller said he and his board are not ready to quit, and they look forward to what's next.
“And I hope, and my board of directors, I think, would say, ‘What’s next? What are we going to do?’ And that’s the part I haven’t figured out yet,” he said.