• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Dec 26, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LAFAYETTE — The Acadiana Outreach Center will soon close the doors of its day shelter for the homeless, The Well, to open a new facility that’s expected to better serve the needs of the chronically homeless.

The new facility, called The Recovery Action Center, will enable the nonprofit group to better address the root causes of chronic homelessness, said Valerie Keller, chief executive officer of Acadiana Outreach Center. 

The nonprofit provides support services for the homeless and those in recovery from substance abuse. Its day shelter, The Well, has been a place where the homeless can receive access to clothing, laundry services and showers. The shelter also provides assistance with finding a job, housing, referrals for social services or help with health or substance abuse issues. 

Each day, 70 to 90 people who walk into The Well access basic services, but too few have chosen to take advantage of additional resources provided by case managers and too many had come to use the property as a place to loiter.

The new facility is expected to change those behaviors and make it easier for the homeless to access services and programs through the nonprofit. 

The closure of The Well is symbolic for the organization as it strengthens its mission of providing comprehensive support services for those who need help changing their lives, said Rob Robison, a downtown business owner and member of the nonprofit’s board.

The new facility is also expected to change the perception held by those who had come to view The Well as a place that “encouraged the homeless lifestyle,” Robison said.

Several properties have been “cobbled together” to make up the Acadiana Outreach Center’s campus, which is located off Second Street and extends to other properties in the area. The current layout allows people to access the campus and be “invisible”— another situation that the new facility is expected to help change, Robison said. 

“It’s not that we’re discouraging people from coming in, but we do not want to do is have areas where people come in and indulge their addictions,” Robison said. 

“I think it will make us more efficient in what we do, which is provide addiction recovery services to people,” he added. “We will be able to do a much better job at identifying those people who have need.” 

The Well as a facility wasn’t an inviting place, Robison admits. The Recovery Action Center is the opposite. 

Rather than just folding chairs set back from an intake desk at The Well, the new facility has a more professional office setting. A large, wooden circular desk acts as the reception area and is positioned directly across bench seating where people will wait for assistance or services. 

The environment enables better accessibility — for the clients to resources and staff and case managers to the clients, said Hector LaSala, an Outreach Center board member and professor of architecture and design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.