Changing the world one paint job at a time
- December 13, 2013
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / community-dashboard
Rick Dye wants all his hippie buddies to know that they still have a chance to change the world.
The Baby Boomer retired banker is doing his part.
Dye, who retired in 2009, has seen his work with the homeless morph in recent years from small to large scale and back again.
In March 2011, Dye through his not-for-profit FaithWorks, turned the old Town and Country Motor Court at 1717 W. Cervantes St. into deposit-free housing for the homeless. He saw the collection of small cottages built in 1941 as the perfect shelter for a strata of the homeless population he says is underserved.
“Those kinds of transitional housing developments (more than an emergency shelter and less than traditional apartments) are what is missing from the picture,” says Dye.
The Waterfront Rescue Mission is not a long-term housing solution, though it does give a stipend to men who go through its drug and alcohol rehab program for housing. Loaves and Fishes, he says, has a limited number of transitional housing slots for women with children. There are boarding house type settings run by religious institutions.
“The local citizenry has a misperception about who takes care of the homeless,” says Dye. “there aren’t enough beds in institutions among shelters and the like, but there are about 800 people a night (who need shelter) some of whom get monthly checks of some kind or are mentally ill because they are off their medications.”
Dye says the cottages between K and L streets were kind of shut down when he came upon them in 2010. The 19 structures on site are owned by Thakorbhai and Savitaben Patel, according to the Escambia County Property Appraiser’s website. They range between 267 and 584 square feet.
[caption id="attachment_21890" align="aligncenter" width="850"]
Town & Country Motor Court[/caption]
Dye charged $425 a month in utilities per cottage; Pensacola News Journal reports at the time of the project put the operating costs at $10,000 a month. It only took two or three people to not to pay for it to become a stretch to meet his lease obligation to the Patels.
Also as the project’s profile grew, it came to city code enforcement services’ attention that what the cottages were now being used for did not match the zoning for the property.
Bill Weeks, inspections service administrator for the city, said a change of occupancy would have been needed for the cottages to continue being rented for more than 30 days at a time.
“For it to fit code you’d have to put kitchens in there and he had put hot-plates in there,” Weeks said. “It would have to go from R-1, which is residential occupancy of a transient nature such as boarding houses, motels, hotels to be an R-2, which is sleeping units where occupants are more permanent, such as boarding houses, convents, dorms, hotels that are not transient.”
The time and expense associated with pursuing that zoning change has more than Dye could take on, though he notes, “if the mayor had had an interest in keeping those people off the street and taken an interest in what was being done there, I think we would not have been on the radar screen.
“There are zoning violations all over the city it is a matter of what they choose to investigate.”
Dye says he shifted his work to a smaller scale — one person at a time, actually — through social enterprises that create jobs.
“If they want their lawn mowed or a paint job, I can take these guys who are skilled and supervise them,” Dye says.
Dye takes his client to and from the job site and uses the time to engage them individually.
“These folks need a new way of thinking and problem solving and the only way to teach a human a new skill is time,” Dye says. “You have to overcome hurdles, and that’s why government programs won’t work because governments are set up execute programs.
That’s why I think people of faith need to address this.”
Dye sees his work as his spiritual calling in his encore career.
For example, he says, one guy he works with is a career carpenter who owes child support.
“We redid a floor in a rental unit for friend (of Dye’s) who is a Realtor is where the toilet leaked for a year and half and damaged the floor,” he says. “On the way to and from we talk about how to make decisions and choices, how to get his health in order, how to go into the clinic and see a doctor, things you and I take for granted. I bought him a cast net for his birthday, he just turned 40.”
There is a FaithWorks website where you can inquire about jobs in small engine, auto, floor and paint works.
Dye’s wife took early retirement from Sacred Heart Hospital a few months ago and between trips to visit their grandchildren in Louisville, Ky., and Kansas City, Mo., he continues his own brand of “freelance” outreach.
He also has a message for his Baby Boomer peers.
“I’d also like to show and motivate other business people and professionals to get off the sofa and get out of the house and in our years of retirement. Don’t quit doing things. The community needs us. They need our way of thinking.”
Town & Country Motor Court[/caption]
Dye charged $425 a month in utilities per cottage; Pensacola News Journal reports at the time of the project put the operating costs at $10,000 a month. It only took two or three people to not to pay for it to become a stretch to meet his lease obligation to the Patels.
Also as the project’s profile grew, it came to city code enforcement services’ attention that what the cottages were now being used for did not match the zoning for the property.
Bill Weeks, inspections service administrator for the city, said a change of occupancy would have been needed for the cottages to continue being rented for more than 30 days at a time.
“For it to fit code you’d have to put kitchens in there and he had put hot-plates in there,” Weeks said. “It would have to go from R-1, which is residential occupancy of a transient nature such as boarding houses, motels, hotels to be an R-2, which is sleeping units where occupants are more permanent, such as boarding houses, convents, dorms, hotels that are not transient.”
The time and expense associated with pursuing that zoning change has more than Dye could take on, though he notes, “if the mayor had had an interest in keeping those people off the street and taken an interest in what was being done there, I think we would not have been on the radar screen.
“There are zoning violations all over the city it is a matter of what they choose to investigate.”
Dye says he shifted his work to a smaller scale — one person at a time, actually — through social enterprises that create jobs.
“If they want their lawn mowed or a paint job, I can take these guys who are skilled and supervise them,” Dye says.
Dye takes his client to and from the job site and uses the time to engage them individually.
“These folks need a new way of thinking and problem solving and the only way to teach a human a new skill is time,” Dye says. “You have to overcome hurdles, and that’s why government programs won’t work because governments are set up execute programs.
That’s why I think people of faith need to address this.”
Dye sees his work as his spiritual calling in his encore career.
For example, he says, one guy he works with is a career carpenter who owes child support.
“We redid a floor in a rental unit for friend (of Dye’s) who is a Realtor is where the toilet leaked for a year and half and damaged the floor,” he says. “On the way to and from we talk about how to make decisions and choices, how to get his health in order, how to go into the clinic and see a doctor, things you and I take for granted. I bought him a cast net for his birthday, he just turned 40.”
There is a FaithWorks website where you can inquire about jobs in small engine, auto, floor and paint works.
Dye’s wife took early retirement from Sacred Heart Hospital a few months ago and between trips to visit their grandchildren in Louisville, Ky., and Kansas City, Mo., he continues his own brand of “freelance” outreach.
He also has a message for his Baby Boomer peers.
“I’d also like to show and motivate other business people and professionals to get off the sofa and get out of the house and in our years of retirement. Don’t quit doing things. The community needs us. They need our way of thinking.”
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