A sign prohibiting firearms is posted outside Little Rock City Hall on Sept. 26, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
A Little Rock food blogger’s effort to solicit food donations for a city emergency shelter on Monday fueled criticism of officials regarding preparations for expected wintry weather.
Kevin Shalin — who uses the online moniker “The Mighty Rib” — referred a request for food donations from Vice Mayor Kathy Webb to his 62,000 Facebook followers. The message asked residents to give muffins, bananas and other goods to the Little Rock Department of Housing and the city’s food commission, all to be used by those who seek refuge from the below-freezing temperatures at a city-operated shelter.
Aaron Reddin, founder of the homelessness advocacy group The Van, swiftly commented on Shalin’s post and said the city had turned down nearly $3,000 in food he purchased for the shelter’s visitors.
Emergency shelters in Little Rock frequently open during inclement weather and are most often inhabited by people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. The city announced the opening of a warming shelter around noon on Sunday. The city’s press release did not mention that food would be provided to those who stay in the shelter, or that the city needed food donations.
The latest Point-in-Time Count, a nationwide tally that counts people experiencing homelessness on a single night, reported Central Arkansas had 773 people experiencing homelessness of some form in 2023.
The nature of Shalin’s post seemed to spark confusion among online commenters, and they posed questions about the city’s motives and its communication methods.
Little Rock resident Michael Ferrara said, “This whole thing is incredibly weird, and it would be almost comical how disorganized this has been if it weren’t for the fact people can and will die from all of this.”
During an interview with the Advocate on Monday afternoon, The Van’s Reddin said buying food for the shelter’s inhabitants was an obvious first step after city officials indicated to him on Saturday that they would open a warming shelter.
Reddin said he and The Van’s volunteers immediately went into “work mode,” which included Reddin compiling a late-night Sam’s Club order on his phone, submitted under the blankets so he didn’t keep his wife awake.
“You can’t put 100-plus people in a room and not have food planned, especially if they’re talking about snow and ice on the back end of this weather event being a possibility,” Reddin said. “I’m getting all the food I can on the front end before the public freaks out. … It was a major scramble for me to get that food so we could have it ready for Monday.”
But Reddin said city officials didn’t tell him they were working on their own food plan until mid-morning on Sunday, too late for Reddin to cancel his own order.
The city didn’t accept the food Reddin ordered, but Reddin said the food would instead be delivered to people braving the freezing temperatures at area encampments.
“It’s going to get eaten, but there’s no reason why it couldn’t have just gone to the damn shelter and been used as what they’re asking for. That’s what I bought it for,” Reddin said.
In an email on Monday, city spokesperson Aaron Sadler said Reddin was asked not to provide food for the shelter on Sunday because the city’s chief homelessness officer had already made preparations.
“We asked The Van instead to assist with transportation, and Mr. Reddin said he would also donate blankets,” Sadler said. “There are no other agreements, formal or informal, between the City and The Van at this time.”
Sadler also said that any questions about donations or supplies for the remainder of the week should be directed to Matthew DeSalvo, the city’s first chief homelessness officer who was hired in June 2024. DeSalvo also serves as the shelter manager.
Though Reddin said he was unaware of any written plan the city had for emergency shelters, Sadler provided a copy of an undated plan to the Advocate Monday afternoon.
The plan names those experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity as the target population for emergency shelters and states that select city employees will staff the shelter and that local churches will provide food.
Meal times listed in the plan are 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., though the current shelter’s schedule has it closed during the day and only open from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. Sadler said the plan will be adjusted as needed, and it is a “work in progress” as the first one created under the chief homelessness officer role.
In a previous city plan, dated Dec. 13, 2022, The Van was listed as the sole local service provider to operate temporary shelters. In the old plan, the provider was also responsible for providing food.
Webb, who was mentioned in Shalin’s social media post, was unavailable on Monday.
Public perception
While Shalin’s post helped spread information about the shelter, some commenters, like Ferrara, said it made the city’s communication methods seem “disorganized” and “dishonest.”
Ferrara, 33, is a self-described advocate for the homeless, and he said he had spent days researching ways to help Little Rock’s unhoused population with the incoming cold front. While he watched as surrounding cities announced their plans, he said he found no information from Little Rock officials.
“I don’t remember getting the majority of this information until this morning,” Ferrara said. “That’s my big gripe. We’re day two in this cold snap that could last 10 days, and we’re only now communicating what to do, where to go, we need more efforts to collect food when The Van bought nearly three grand of resources.”
Ferrara lives downtown, in Little Rock’s SoMa district, in a two-bedroom apartment that he has heated with electric radiators since his gas utility became too expensive for him to afford about two years ago, he said. Because of this, he is particularly in tune to the weather, he said.
Ferrara said he often chats with the homeless population nearby, many of whom he has gotten to know well over the last five years. In 2023, he said his friend, Brian, died in a fire while trying to stay warm.
“I would have spent my last dollar putting him in a hotel room, but he found an abandoned home, set a fire to keep himself warm, passed out and the fire consumed the entire house,” Ferrara said. “Since that moment, I just don’t have any patience for this issue.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
He said he also knows that getting from point A to point B can take someone experiencing homelessness all day. With the city’s shelter announcement coming on Sunday, Ferrara said many people in need likely didn’t know a warm refuge was available.
“The way that the flow of information works for folks who don’t have smartphones, who don’t have reliable Wi-Fi access, it’s so much slower,” he said. “To announce things hours in advance — yeah, you and I can take that information, share it, and everybody in our circle will see it — but homeless people don’t follow The Mighty Rib, a food blog for restaurants that won’t even let homeless people in.”
Ferrara said the announcement should have come earlier and from an official source.
Turbulent past
Little Rock officials typically open the Dunbar Community Center located at 1001 W. 16th St. as an emergency shelter when inclement weather occurs, and The Van often contributes to its operation. Even now, those needing transportation to the shelter can call (501) 955-3444 for a shuttle from a volunteer with The Van.
The city’s Sunday announcement came after several other surrounding cities in Central Arkansas had announced similar services. Reddin described Little Rock’s effort as “hasty.”
“We have consistently opened our cold-weather shelters when needed to offer refuge to our unsheltered and others in need during freezing temperatures,” Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said in the press release. “We are able to do so through the leadership of our city team members and strong support from community partners like The Van and other organizations and volunteers.”
The press release said the shelter would be open until 9 a.m. Tuesday, and additional nights would be determined with updated weather forecasts.
While the city and The Van have worked together in the past, Reddin’s interest in collaboration soured after the city prohibited tent distribution at a March 2024 event for the unsheltered population.
Though Reddin told the Arkansas Times at the time that he wouldn’t again work with the city, he said Monday he “embarrassed [himself] on public television” with a public plea to the city in hopes it would urge them to open an emergency shelter.
When asked on Monday, Reddin said he would not partner with the city again in the future, though The Van would continue to provide its shuttling service to future shelters.
Reddin said he is in the process of purchasing or constructing a permanent shelter space for The Van.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.