With the closure of The Well, Lafayette’s homeless population lost a day shelter. However, next week, Acadiana Outreach opens its Recovery Action Center, which will offer far more services to those in need. Housed in a newly renovated warehouse just behind the Acadiana Outreach campus, the Recovery Action Center is a place for the homeless to shower, do laundry, and use the phone. For those who want to enter into substance abuse programs, case managers and spiritual counselors will be available, along with counselors from Tyler Mental Health, and UL nursing students providing health services. What the Recovery Action Center does not offer is a place to hang out without entering into recovery and job opportunity programs. “We want to address the root causes of homelessness,” says Outreach Center spokesperson Jesse Guidry. “The Action Center is a better vehicle for delivering basic human dignity services. But if people don’t want to enter into our programs, they can’t loiter, they have to leave.”
The Recovery Action Center will host its official community grand opening on March 11 at 4 p.m. on the Outreach Center’s campus located at 125 S. Buchanan St., on the corner of Second and Buchanan in Downtown Lafayette. For more information contact Jesse Guidry at 237-7618 or log onto acadianaoutreach.org.