JEFFERSONVILLE — The homeless shelter in Jeffersonville will stay open after a buyer stepped in and purchased Haven House Service’s Inc.’s building as it was being auctioned by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday.
David Brown, owner of Kentuckiana Roofing, paid $7,900 for the building, located at 1727 Green St. in Jeffersonville. His was the only bid at the auction, and also the minimum bid that the IRS would have taken for the property.
He said he plans to keep the Williams Emergency Shelter open and operating under the same management.
Haven House Inc. has been negotiating with the IRS since 2007, after it went about three years without paying its payroll taxes. Despite the sale, Haven House still has about $258,000 in tax debt, according to Executive Director Barbara Anderson.
With the purchase, Brown also inherited about $81,136 in liens — one from a mortgage and another from a legal judgment.
Brown, whose business has offices in Jeffersonville and Louisville, said he was keeping the shelter open because he thinks there’s a big need for it.
He said he first read about it in newspaper articles and from a homeless man living in a cardboard box behind his business.
“I decided to try and keep it open,” he said, noting that the about 60 or so residents there would be able to say.
He said the building will need work and updating. The first order of business will be a new roof, he said.
“We feel, really, kind of great about it,” said Angela Wolfe, operations coordinator at the shelter. “The struggle of finding everybody [at the shelter] placement was going to be a really tough situation.”
Anderson was not at the auction, saying she was afraid to watch if someone were to outbid Brown.
In an interview that followed the auction, she called Brown’s decision to step in “perfect.”
“This is what we prayed for.” she said.
Anderson said Brown would be donating even more money through a private foundation he operates, helping the shelter cover salaries and operating expenses. Brown could not be reached via a follow-up call to confirm how much he’d be donating monthly.
According to Keith L. Thomas, IRS property appraisal and liquidation specialist, Brown’s bid essentially guarantees him the right to buy the property after a 180-day redemption period. Technically, Haven House could still pay off its own debt during the next six months and the sale would not be final.
His bid will first go to pay expenses associated with the sale, then to the tax debt. When the six month period ends, Brown will have to pay a $74,504.34 mortgage lien on the property and a $6,632 lien related to matching funds Haven House owed another homeless services organization in Indianapolis.
Tuesday development came as a surprise to many. Just last week, Anderson reported that donations aimed at saving Haven House had been meager.
Additionally, a handful of human services agencies, collectively known as the Southern Indiana Housing Initiative, announced plans to help move homeless people staying at Haven House to Louisville shelters.
“Best of luck,” said Jim Bosley, chief executive officer at New Hope Services Inc., one of the member agencies in the housing initiative.
“If [Anderson] can turn things around, I think that’s great. We were just trying to respond to what looked like an imminent problem for the city,” he said.
Jeffersonville Mayor Tom Galligan said he, too, was glad Anderson found someone willing to help the shelter.
Numerous times, she asked the city for money, to no avail. “I wish her well,” Galligan said.
Of course, the organization still has tax debt, and Thomas said the government can hold the person who did not pay the payroll taxes, in this case Anderson, personally responsible.
Anderson said a lien has been placed on her home because of the tax debt and said she’s negotiating with the IRS. The IRS also auctioned a transitional housing unit that Haven House owned in New Albany on Tuesday.
“These people aren’t out to burn Haven House,” Anderson said of the government. “They’re out to collect their money. I have no problem acknowledging my responsibility.”
