PORT ARTHUR, Texas — A Port Arthur shelter owner is fighting to keep the doors of his shelter open after the city and fire marshal shut the facility down, citing a lack of permits and fire code violations.
The Cypress Glen Nursing & Rehabilitation Facility in Port Arthur was transformed into a shelter for citizens facing homelessness years after it was flooded by Harvey.
The facility owner, Dr. Stan Packard teamed up with Pastor Keith Richard to provide a home and jobs for people needing a second chance.
Dr. Packard has been restoring the building since 2020, but he now has to fight to reach his goal of helping others.
"Weeks ago, these people were already homeless, and a big flood came through and made them homeless again," said Dr. Packard. "And they were sleeping in the mud. Alligators, mosquitoes, pitiful."
Dr. Packard says the 75,000 square feet Cypress Glen Nursing & Rehabilitation Facility was once abandoned, but provides more than enough space to help Southeast Texans.
"We thought, you know, we don't have hot water but we have water. We don't have beds, but we can get cots from the Army, and we did," said Dr. Packard. "And we gave them a little place to stay until they can get their feet under the ground. Not meaning to do anything wrong."
Dr. Packard welcomed people ahead of schedule amid bad weather this summer. He says he believed his occupancy paperwork would be grandfathered in.
"Ok, we have an occupancy permit that we can't use for a nursing home, but it did allow people to sleep here," said Dr. Packard.
The people living at the shelter were also working at the facility.
"I cook breakfast, and I make lunch, and I cook dinner for them everyday," said resident David Heard.
Cooking for other residents was one of many roles Heard served.
"They put me over security, I was helping the people if they needed to go anywhere," said Heard. "I'd bring them to the Social Security place, I would bring them to the place to get food stamps, anywhere they needed to go."
Things came to an end after Port Arthur Councilmember Doneane Beckcom called the fire department.
"Now that we're here, we come, and they're like shutting the place down," said Heard. "I'm like oh my god, what is going on?"
A stop work order noticed was issued to the shelter, citing code violations.
"Thank God, we were able to get some of them placed," said Pastor Richard. "A lot of them went back to the streets, so their back homeless. Unfair, it's unfair, and it's sad."
Councilmember Beckcom responded to 12News and stated;
"My statement about this is that there is a right way to go about opening a homeless shelter. It’s not that we don’t need something like this in Port Arthur, because everyone knows that we do. But there is a correct and legal way to go about it. The owner and the manager of that building did not seek the proper permitting, certificates of occupancy, zoning changes if necessary, they did this all under the radar and that’s why I sought to have it shut down. It was a health and safety hazard not to mention the lack of proper permitting, licenses, etc. When it was inspected by the fire marshal and the chief sanitation officer they found numerous violations, some of which were potentially dangerous. I turned it over to the proper city departments when I found out what was going on.”
Dr. Packard says he looks forward to obtaining the right permits to reopen the shelter.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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