When you walk through the doors of the Brookdale Resource Center – formerly known as the Brookdale Warming Center – you’re greeted by a smiling, friendly, and welcoming security guard before heading into the main office to be greeted by even more smiling faces. After checking in, your next sight is a floor to ceiling mural on the wall with the word “Hello” on it, and then message boards with information about jobs, housing, and other services. 

But it wasn’t always like this. Just five years ago, the building sat empty, old desks, chairs, and other furniture scattered throughout, many on their sides and in disrepair. The former elementary school had closed in May 2020, merging with Riley Elementary to create the new John R. Lewis Elementary.

Following the loss on Christmas of two men experiencing homelessness, then Mayor-elect Lester Miller gave Macon-Bibb departments and partner service providers a charge to open an emergency shelter to prevent it from happening again. Led by the Emergency Management Agency (EMA), a plan was formed, services put in place, and the facility was converted and opened to people needing shelter…in less than two weeks.

“I was a person who was one light bill away from being homeless myself [growing up],” says Mayor Lester Miller of his personal connection to making this happen so quickly and understanding of how much this was needed. 

“This was a crisis center, basically. This was not a hotel,” Steve Bell, who served as the Center’s first Executive Director, says of what they told people coming through the doors. “I’m just trying to make sure you stay alive.”

“Initially, when we opened, it was simply to give them a warm place to stay and a meal and then give our caseworkers a chance to have a conversation with them,” says Alison Bender, who began as a volunteer and was later named the Executive Director. 

While the story of how quickly the doors opened to people in need, the truly moving story is how the community opened its arms. To create a safe environment for people. To welcome them inside and make them feel at home…and then to give them the tools and confidence to find their own home.

The building wasn’t truly set up for living. There were cots in the rooms and donated sheets and linens. There were bathrooms but no showers. There was a kitchen, but nothing was hooked up and no one to serve the meals. So, a call went out to the community: “we need your help.”

And Macon-Bibb – as it does time and time again – showed up and showed out.

Tens of thousands of items were donated, from clothing items to shampoo to deodorant to book bags to socks and shoes to coats and clothes to toothbrushes to hairbrushes…and so, so much more. People volunteered to serve the three meals a day. Businesses, without being asked, donated tens of thousands of dollars. 

“It was such an overwhelming response, we had to stop accepting donations here at Brookdale and set up a drop off location at the Fire Station down the street,” adds EMA Director Spencer Hawkins.

“I knew that this was something I could continue to be part of,” Bender says of her first week volunteering.

“I’ve never seen the community support something lie they did Brookdale,” says Bell. “My heart was overwhelmed with the amount of love that came out of this community, and also lighting the spark back in me to do as well as I could for the individuals that were here.”

However, just having supplies and a place for people to put their head wouldn’t be enough for the volunteers, for the staff, for the partners, or for the Mayor. There needed to be a next step for people…they couldn’t just go back to sleeping outside or in blighted homes. They needed a path forward, and when they walked away from Brookdale, they needed to be better prepared for life. 

So, the Warming Center almost immediately began evolving to the Resource Center. Birth certificates, social security cards, housing applications, veteran affairs, addiction support, mental health services, job applications, real world skills…all were provided to residents. Holiday parties, birthdays, celebrations, get togethers, chores, responsibilities, homework assistance, tutors…education and social aspects were all included in living in a home like this. 

Whatever they needed to help them move toward permanent housing and find some kind of stability and normalcy.

“The folks walking in through this door, are coming in at some of the worst moments in their lives,” says Hawkins of what he stressed to the staff. “We need to ensure they are treated and cared for with respect, dignity, and compassion.”

“It’s already traumatic in some way for everyone involved, and we just want people to feel like they belong here while they’re here,” says Bender.

She can still recite the names of the children who have stayed at the Center and even talk about their progress in school. When she talks of them, her voice is filled with the same love and pride as she speaks of her own children.

There’s a real connection between the people working and volunteering at Brookdale and those who used to stay there. It’s not just the children Bender and Bell remember…they still run into some of the people in stores and in public. 

“I’m proud of you; congratulations,” Bender says she wishes she could tell every person that came through Brookdale. “I knew you could do it all along. I’m glad you believed in yourself.”

And that warmth indicates something deeper about Brookdale. It’s not just changing the lives of the people staying there…it’s changing the lives of every person involved.  

“This organization sparked something in other nonprofits,” says Bell of the first few months. “Raising money can be tough…it was not tough here. We had businesses coming to us just wanting to donate money and volunteer hours.”

“The people we see, the people that come through, have an impact on us, I hope as much as we have on them,” says Bender.

“Thank you for changing the life of a child,” Mayor Miller says he wants to say to every person that has worked there, that has donated to the residents, or who has spent time volunteering in the Center.

Brookdale is still opening its doors to people in need and is at the center of the community’s effort to help people in need. It is still changing to meet the ever-evolving needs of the community. It – and most importantly – the residents still need our community to come forward and help. 

“We still have people living on the streets. We still have people not turning on the heat in their home because they can’t afford it,” says Hawkins. “The community needs us to step in a way that is still necessary five years after we opened these doors.”

Five years later, nearly 5,000 have come through its doors. 

Five years later, nearly 5,000 people have had a warm and safe place to stay and had the chance to move toward permanent housing.

Five years later, Macon-Bibb is in the midst of a transformative experience that is changing the way it views people experiencing homelessness and people who are housing insecure.

And it all started by a group of people and organizations who opened the doors to people in need…and didn’t take no for an answer.