Pickens County homeless shelter hits a snag; Shoeless Joe Jackson's store gets a marker

Well, I have some pretty good news, and some pretty bad news.

I’m following up on a couple of my previous columns – one about the effort to establish a homeless shelter in Pickens County, and the other about the fate of the building where Shoeless Joe Jackson once operated a liquor store.

I’m going to give you the pretty bad news first.

The guy who had offered to lease a building to Tracy and Sunshine Gantt for a homeless shelter has backed out, leaving the whole project in a lurch, big time. More on that in a minute.

The pretty good news is that in keeping with the wishes of the Pickens County Institute for Advanced Theoretical Engineering, Economics and Barbecue Arts & Sciences (PIE), the historic building in the Village of West Greenville where Joe Jackson’s liquor store was will be getting a plaque honoring his legacy. This will assure that the building won’t languish in anonymity any longer, like it has for the past 60-something years.

Yay.

The reason I call it “pretty good” is because we were advocating that a business related to baseball history be located there. Instead, it’s going to be a T-shirt shop.

OK, it won’t be your ordinary T-shirt shop like you see at Myrtle Beach or Pigeon Forge. It will be an upscale T-shirt shop with some flair, and personality – perhaps a fairly quirky personality, based on the video the guy who will run the place posted on his website.

According to one of the owners of the building, Jo Watson Hackl, it will be “a high quality T-shirt company with original design.”

Beautiful Demise. That’s the name of it.

The proprietor, Neil Pencils, is a pretty cool individual, if a little...well, watch the video. (His passion in life is his T-shirt collection, which he keeps in a closet at home. He enjoys spending time rifling through it, rearranging it, etc.)

I wish him the best. And whenever he outgrows the building, maybe my buddy (PIE co-founder and Senior Fellow Allen Senn) and I will move in with our baseball cards and collectibles shop. 

Dream on.

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Now, back to the more serious news. I feel very sad for Sunshine and Tracy Gantt and all their numerous supporters who have gone to considerable lengths to start this homeless shelter. They’re not giving up, but with this property owner yanking the building out from under them, they’re pretty much back at square one.

Sunshine and Tracy, who pastor New Deliverance Church in Easley and minister to the homeless while supporting themselves with entrepreneurial home-based businesses, had overcome what seemed like insurmountable obstacles several times over the past few months.

When they found out they would have to install a fire sprinkler system in the building – which was estimated to cost between $30,000 and $50,000 – that could have been the death knell. But as if by an act of God, A&A Fire Protection of Greenville stepped forward and offered to provide a system and install it for free!

Then came the issue of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

County officials said the building would need to have an ADA-compliant “life safety plan” drawn up by an architect. Architects aren’t cheap.

But Bob Cashion of RCC Architect, Inc., which specializes in churches and ministry buildings, went to bat for them. The plan was drawn up and approved by the county.

More:God has been 'connecting the dots': Pickens County homeless shelter plan moving forward

Rock Springs Baptist Church and Five Points Church in Easley and several other churches have come together to support the shelter.

The BB&T bank branch in Easley, BB&T Insurance in Easley and BB&T in Greenville purchased the 16 beds and mattresses the center needed. That was about a $5,000 gift.

Numerous businesses and individuals have made donations. The Gantts have a team of 13 working to establish a shelter, including several nurses and an addictions physician. The shelter will be run by volunteers.

When I talked with Sunshine early last week, all they needed was another $1,500 toward the deposit and they’d be ready to sign the lease and start renovations.

Then, out of the blue, they got a text message from the owner, saying he had “decided to go in a different direction.”

I feel partly responsible, because the building owner had reached out to the Gantts after reading my story about them in January. It seemed like a godsend at the time.

After I heard he had backed out, I figured I would call him and make a plea myself. But I decided it would be better to do it this way. I know he reads my column.

So here goes: Sir, I understand there may be people who don’t want a shelter at that location. And I know you may be able to get a better rent out of a for-profit homeless. The Gantts have given up on using your building since you haven’t responded to their calls, but if you have a change of heart, maybe it’s not too late.

I like to believe that things happen for a reason, but something like this makes it difficult to see any grand plan. Still, nobody is giving up. The Gantts are looking for another place.

I just hope that all of you who have supported them will stick with them. They’re going to open a homeless shelter in Pickens County.

I think you can count on that.

Contact Ron Barnett at rbarnett@gannett.com.