Kaitlyn Smith, left, sorts through donated clothing as volunteers clear out merchandise and clean up One Love Longview's Twice Loved Marketplace on Friday. (Les Hassell/Longview News-Journal Photo)

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from the city of Longview.

At least for now, One Love Longview’s daily struggle is over. Once the homeless outreach center’s doors close Friday, volunteers won’t be spending all day caring for the city’s homeless residents who go there to bathe, clean their clothes and eat.

That means a new struggle for Longview’s homeless population is beginning.

“The harsh reality is that there is not going to be a ‘next’ for a lot of these folks,” said Amanda Veasy, One Love Longview’s executive director. “This is going to ultimately result in death for some of them. It will be a final straw. The reality is, it’s not legal for them to exist anywhere in city limits.”

After five years of serving the needs of the city’s unhoused population, One Love will close the doors of its McCann Road building because of a lack of funding — and because of what Veasy calls a targeted effort by city officials and business owners to shut the organization down.

The city’s top administrator denied those claims, however, and business owners have said the organization’s clients have created public safety issues in the area. City officials also cited data showing that most encounters between police and homeless community members do not end in arrests or citations.

Although One Love is ceasing operations at its brick-and-mortar building, the organization itself isn’t dissolving, and Veasy has no plans to stop helping the city’s homeless residents.

Nevertheless, she said she fears what’s in store — or not in store, rather — for dozens of people who’ve received food, counseling, medical care, addiction recovery services and more each day from One Love. Mainly, she said she’s concerned they’ll be criminalized further.

“This community as a whole is not prepared for what’s about to happen when we close our doors,” Veasy said.

‘Safety net at the very bottom’What became a day shelter providing resources to homeless residents started with a Little Caesar’s pizza box.

Veasy began taking pizza, sleeping bags and more to homeless people at Magrill Park and other encampments about 10 years ago — “whatever it was that my folks needed,” she said.

Veasy calls them “my folks” for a reason: She’s been homeless before. She grew up in poverty, was abused and was a teenage mother.

“I have a pretty traumatic background from the time I was very young, and I have experienced some of the very same things that they have experienced,” she said. “I know what it feels like to not have anywhere to go. I know what it feels like to be abused.”

The suffering she lived through, and the suffering of others, compelled her to act. As she once read, not all people are lucky enough to escape a terrible past. Those who make it out have a duty to help pull others out of the darkness.

“I can’t imagine how you could see the things that we see or pass people on the road in their lowest state and not feel a responsibility to do something,” Veasy said. “My mind cannot wrap around that.”

One Love Longview was incorporated in 2020, and in 2022, it moved from Fairmont Street to McCann Road. Its mission has been to provide counseling, medical assistance and more to homeless residents, including those of different ethnicities and LGBTQ people. It operates as a day shelter but not an overnight shelter except during inclement weather.

Longview has organizations such as the Hiway 80 Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army that provide overnight shelter and various programs to help homeless people. And they do a great job, Veasy said, but they can’t help everyone.

“One Love has really tried to be that safety net at the very bottom when folks are falling through the cracks or they’re not eligible to receive services because of some severe mental health issue, or because maybe they have an intellectual disability, or they have a pet or because they have a traumatic brain injury, or they’re on the [autism] spectrum,” Veasy said.

“The beautiful thing is that it takes all of us to each plug in to our individual specialties and take that group and care for them wholeheartedly and serve them relentlessly. And so a piece of that puzzle is about to be missing from this community.”

Public safety issuesNot long after One Love moved to the building on McCann Road, trouble started. Business owners and residents in the area voiced concerns that One Love’s clients were causing disturbances at local businesses, vandalizing property and littering.

Calls for service to the Longview Police Department increased once One Love moved into the area. In June 2023, business owners, residents, city officials and Veasy met to discuss the issues.

Mark Moseley, co-owner of Moseley’s Appliances at 1013 McCann Road, said homeless people have slept near his business. One person became belligerent after asking someone for money for a hotel room but being turned down. Customers have been afraid to leave their cars and enter the business, the News-Journal reported.

John Ray, a sales manager at Orr Cadillac GMC at 400 Spur 63 N, said homeless people have approached customers to ask for money but become aggressive when they declined. Homeless people have entered the dealership showroom and refused to leave; some have cursed and screamed; and one completely undressed before leaving, the News-Journal reported.

Moseley and Ray said those issues ceased following the meeting and expressed gratitude for the improvement. Veasy said she had simply asked clients not to trespass on other properties.

But businesses still suffered losses. Vehicles at Orr Cadillac GMC sustained $180,000 in damage, the News-Journal previously reported. Other business owners said cars have been broken into and that homeless people have defecated in Dumpsters, the News-Journal reported in May.

“I think we’re all sympathetic,” said David Jacobs, a homeowners in Towne Lake Village off McCann Road. “I think our sympathy has been abused.”

‘Targeted approach’More controversy arose in early 2024 when Veasy allowed One Love clients to sleep outside the building. She said clients were being arrested or ticketed wherever they went and had no other safe place to go.

The City Council in May 2024 added additional restrictions to a city ordinance that bars camping in the city limits. Mayor Kristen Ishihara advocated for the change based on feedback she received from community members.

Additional struggles between the city and One Love were in store. Veasy was charged in municipal court with violating the anti-camping ordinance by allowing someone to sleep on the property, and the matter hasn’t gone to trial yet. Attorney Mary Lou Tevebaugh is representing Veasy in the case.

Veasy also was charged with violating a city ordinance requiring her to have a permit to host an outdoor event. Officials in the city’s development Services office initially said Veasy didn’t need a permit because her organization was a nonprofit. However, they later determined that, based on a city ordinance, she did need a permit because One Love doesn’t own the building. Records show that Veasy applied for a permit, but it was denied because it wasn’t submitted in time.

City officials also granted but later revoked a permit allowing One Love to serve food at its property. The issue preceded the resignation, in lieu of termination, of the city’s former environmental health manager, Leisha Kidd-Brooks, in September, the News-Journal previously reported. Kidd-Brooks granted One Love a permit to serve food but didn’t require the facility to be inspected. Kidd-Brooks calls herself a friend of Veasy, the News-Journal previously reported.

Tevebaugh, Veasy’s attorney, in December accused city officials of taking a “targeted approach” to shut down One Love Longview. Veasy repeated that claim in an interview Saturday. However, it’s a claim that City Manager Rolin McPhee denied in December.

“I will tell you that a city’s responsibility — and by that I mean a municipal government’s responsibility — we are to enforce the policies, procedures and ordinances set by City Council, and in execution of those duties, it is our job to indiscriminately apply those same rules to every entity and/or establishment,” McPhee previously said.

The loss of financial support from donors is another reason One Love is closing, Veasy said. Businesses that have financially supported Veasy have “been targeted” by community members and business owners for supporting the organization, she said. As a result, some donors have “backed off.”

Not the endOn Friday, Veasy and volunteers cleaned out the Twice Loved Marketplace, a thrift shop supporting One Love. It was the beginning of the end — at least for One Love’s present iteration.

Veasy isn’t sure what she’ll do next. She believes she was born to help the homeless.

She has background in Christian ministry and said Jesus is her “hero.” During her darkest seasons of life, all she had was “my Bible and my ability to pace and pray,” she said.

“It’s almost our nature to respond to people in suffering and to say, ‘I’ll pray for you,’” Veasy said. “But I feel like our lives should be a living prayer. I feel like just the act of prayer is not enough.

“When we only pray, and we put this expectation on God to do things or handle things or find a solution, then we have, in fact, handicapped God, because we are the solution. Humanity is the solution to all of humanity’s problems.”

Longview has struggled to find sustainable, long-term solutions to help homeless people, Veasy said. Like most other cities across the nation, Longview has ticketed and arrested homeless people for camping outside, even though they might not have anywhere else to go. That’s the most expensive and least effective way to solve the issue, Veasy said.

However, Veasy said she’s concerned that more arrests and ticketing will occur once One Love’s clients don’t have somewhere to go during the daytime.

“Is this where we want our tax dollars going — to jailing people who don’t deserve to be jailed? ” she said.

However, city of Longview spokesman Richard Yeakley said police officers’ first response to the city’s unhoused community is not to issue citations or make arrests. In calendar year 2024, including the months before and after the city’s camping ordinance was passed, Longview police had 1,100 contacts with unhoused people, Yeakley said. Of those interactions, 41 ended with someone being cited for an issue directly related to homelessness, such as sleeping or camping on private property.

Veasy and her crew will meet with social workers and case managers to connect clients with other resources before Friday.

“We are the link for services and solution for individuals who are experiencing chronic homelessness, and there’s not another service provider in our area that that is meeting that specific need,” Veasy said.

Still, she said, “This does not mean that One Love is going away.”

“I know that there’s no going back,” Veasy said. “You can’t see the kind of human suffering that I’ve seen over my years doing this and just turn a blind eye. You can’t turn your head from it.”