Work at homeless shelter is stopped

When it came to making life better for the homeless, bureaucracy was the last thing on Fran Oliver's mind.

Her focus was opening a larger location for the 25-30 men who daily visit the homeless shelter she directs, Mercy Ministries.

But not even the homeless are beyond the reach of the city's building inspectors.

Augusta has shut down the remodeling of a site in Harrisburg, where Ms. Oliver said her agency aimed to move.

On Tuesday, she said she found a note stuck to the door of the new facility. Its contents weren't a warm welcome to the neighborhood.

Ms. Oliver said the gist of it was: Stop all work, you don't have the permits for what you are doing.

Marshall Masters, the city's director of construction, said the inspector was just doing his job.

"That's what he gets paid for," he said, adding "We're just trying to protect the public. We're not trying to limit them from what they're doing."

The stop-work order was posted after The Augusta Chronicle published a story on the renovations, showing volunteers, many of whom were men who will use the shelter, at work on the former Beauford Glass building at 1739 Fenwick St.

Ms. Oliver said she wants to comply with the city's regulations and also acknowledges that the group might have been in the wrong.

"We were just ignorant," she said. "We didn't know we had to have them."

Mr. Masters said the group's renovations could be delayed up to two weeks. But he said his department will try to get them back to work before then.

Mercy Ministries submitted plans for the alterations, which must be reviewed by the inspection and fire departments.

It also will cost some money, although Mr. Masters said an amount couldn't be calculated yet.

Ms. Oliver said the group likely can handle the fee, whatever it is.

But she said that the agency operates on a "shoestring budget."

"We just have to depend on God for that," Ms. Oliver said.