A Santa Rosa County businessman bought a building to help disabled. Now he wants them gone.
Jessica Gainus has development disabilities. The 34-year-old Santa Rosa County woman has been coming to the Arc of the Emerald Coast’s adult day training center in Milton, for 10 years. She is one of about two dozen other disabled adults who regularly attend the program in northern Santa Rosa County.
The disabled adults in the program receive tutoring in basic education, life skills such as cooking, as well as enjoy arts and crafts, and each other’s company.
Jessica’s mother, Paulette, says the five-day-a-week program has been a “blessing” to her and their family. It not only provides a safe place for her daughter away from home, but it also helps her grow socially and academically.
“This has been the best place that she's ever been in,” said Paulette Gainus. “They take care of her needs. She has issues and they protect her from herself. She's growing here, too. She’s learning her times tables and that's a huge step for her because she's never done times tables before. She's grown a lot emotionally and academically here.”
The Arc’s adult day training center has been located at 6225 Dixie Road in Milton for 30 years. Many of the people in the program have been attending for much of that time.
Suzanne Suggs’s 40-year-old daughter, Jessica Hardy, is one of them. She has Down Syndrome and the day center gives her a place to go and learn while her parents work.
“She comes four days a week, Tuesday through Friday. She loves it,” said Suggs. “I don't have to do anything. I set an alarm on her phone. She gets up, gets herself ready, gets out there, gets on the van, and they take care of her all day and bring her home.”
However, after three decades in the same building, the Arc has been told to vacate the property by the owner, Gulf Breeze businessman Eric Herrholz. The move has left the agency without a permanent home for the program in the north end of Santa Rosa County.
"It's my understanding that the agreement said as long as Arc wanted to be in this building, they could and now we have to get out. It’s frustrating," said parent Cindy Walker, whose 40-year-old son, John, has attended the day center for 18 years.
The property on Dixie Road was sold in 2017 after the state foreclosed to collect more than $300,000 owed by the Arc of Santa Rosa, the agency that previously provided services to the disabled. A 2015 audit of the Arc of Santa Rosa found it owed the Agency for Health Care Administration Medicaid repayment and penalties.
At the time, the sale also meant the end of services for more than 80 families who were in the program, until Herrholz stepped up to buy the building.
Herrholz said he felt led by his faith to make the purchase and allow the Arc to continue using it rent free, per the previous arrangement. The Arc covers utilities, taxes and repairs. In gratitude of his support, administrators even dedicated the building to Herrholz’s father.
"God has given me a lot," Herrholz told the News Journal in 2017. "I felt there were 81 people there who were more important than I am."
The Arc of the Emerald Coast stepped in to help run services in Santa Rosa County after the Arc of Santa Rosa was forced to liquidate its assets and services.
Administrators say the notice to leave caught them off guard and they were not provided with an explanation. Now they are scrambling to find another location.
“When we entered into the management agreement, we reached out to Eric (Herrholz) and wanted to establish a relationship, he's essentially a landlord,” said Melissa Rogers, CEO of the Arc of the Emerald Coast, which serves Okaloosa and Walton counties in addition to Santa Rosa. “We were trying to communicate with him and we just had a really difficult time. We could never get him to really engage with us.”
Rogers said they have repeatedly asked him for a lease, but he has refused. Around the first of this year administrators say he told them the Arc must go.
Herrholz did not return requests for comment.
According to the Santa Rosa County Property Appraiser’s website Hold This, Inc. bought the property for $100,000 in May 2017. About two weeks later, the property was then granted to Domus Dei, LLC for $100. According to the Florida Division of Corporations, the registered agents for those LLCs are Nick Vertucci of Orlando and Victor Wagner of Port Charlotte.
“This was the ideal space for us,” explained Stephen Rampersad, chief advancement officer with the Arc. “We need something with a large classroom-type area, some storage rooms, kitchen, and bathrooms that are handicapped-accessible.”
The Arc has two other possible locations where they could move. Rampersad said the board of the nonprofit organization, Citizens Moving Forward, is considering allowing them to use a building they own in Milton.
The Arc is also talking to the county about possibly using the Bagdad Community Center, but they would need the $25 an hour facility fee waived.
Rampersad said they’ve also reached out to Santa Rosa County and Milton city leaders for help. In the meantime, the Arc is making plans to pack up and move.
Parents, like Walker, are disappointed to leave their longtime day center “home.” However, Walker says as long as the staff is there, their adult children will adjust to the change.
“This is his happy place,” said Walker with a smile. “Sometimes I think he'd rather be here than at home. I cannot say enough positive things about this program. They have impacted his life tremendously. If he can't come, he's very upset. Everything they do is positive.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Arc adult day training center in Milton for disabled lose building