The city of Lebanon, Missouri, has given the green light for a local ministry to convert the closed Forest Manor Motel into a homeless shelter.
However, a few neighboring Route 66 businesses have voice concerns about the project.
KOLR-TV produced this even-handed segment about Mike Duran’s project for Ministers of Fire:
Here’s one of the key segments of the story:
Just moments after speaking with KOLR10, Duran faced some tough criticism from neighboring business owners like Katie Hapner, the Manager of what was once Wrink’s Market on Route 66.
“When they’re traveling Route 66 they don’t want a bad experience in Lebanon,” Hapner says. “People from Switzerland come over here, people from Germany.”
Speaking with Hapner, it doesn’t take long to realize, for her, a new neighbor (one possibly attracting at-risk tenants) isn’t just a threat to her income but a threat to her family’s legacy.
“My grandfather owned [Wrink’s],” she says. “I feel like he built it up for 55 years and to see that 12 years after it’s passed it’s still alive.”
The story doesn’t mention it, but in the video Duran said residents of the soon-to-be shelter will enforce a curfew, will check residents’ behavior via surveillance cameras and limit residents’ stay at the former motel. He also said he would not operate the motel like its predecessors, intimating the Forest Manor had some questionable residents during its final days.
[F]or Duran, the legacies found along the mother road– come second to the demands of the Father.
“Biblically speaking we’re called to love our neighbors,” Duran says.
Lebanon (population 14,700) lacks a homeless shelter.
The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program long has advocated adaptive reuse of old motels such as the Forest Manor if such properties can’t be used for overnight lodging.
The Forest Manor Motel sits near a cluster of historic Route 66 properties, including Wrink’s, Munger Moss Motel, Starlite Lanes bowling alley, and Taylor’s Dairy Joy restaurant.
The concerns about the shelter might be understandable. But Route 66 businesses would do well to remember the Joads in “The Grapes of Wrath” — one of the most beloved novels and movies that takes place on Route 66 — also were homeless.
(Hat tip to Jax Welborn; screen-capture image of the Forest Manor Motel in Lebanon, Missouri, from KSPR-TV video in January)
Our esteemed journalist would also do well to remember that during the Depression and Dust Bowl a lot of otherwise “normal” people were uprooted due to circumstances beyond their control. Today, with the abundance of resources and welfare programs available, excuses tend to run thin. Unfortunately, most homeless I’ve encountered, and there are stats to back this up, have either alcohol/drug addiction issues and/or mental health problems. They need help, no doubt, but the concerns are legitimate and very real.
Isn’t mental illness a circumstance beyond an individual’s control, as well?
Yes of course, although there is evidence that drug use can lead to certain illnesses as well. They certainly deserve help, but I think that these businesses that are already struggling to survive on 66 are rightly concerned about the possible drawbacks. Homeless people do not deserve to be shunned, but denying or covering up the reality of their situation is ultimately doing the most damage to them.
The current state of the Forest Manor is not exactly pristine. I understand some concern, but it may end up an improvement.