Homeless say downtown Rock Hill center needed, without it many ‘would be lost’

Nearly three weeks after the fatal shooting of a client in the Renew Our Community center's parking lot, the nonprofit is recovering day by day.

The man charged with murder in the shooting, Jayson Tucker, 26, and the victim, Antonio Roddey, 32, were both ROC clients, police said.

The agency is a Christian nonprofit that works with the poor and homeless to provide vocational assistance and other services.

Executive Director Bruce McKagan said he wasn’t sure if anyone would show up the morning after the shooting, but the center opened early with grief counselors on hand.

“At 8 a.m. we were packed,” he said. “People wanted to come to grieve together.”

Harry Jennings, a ROC supervisor, said the shooting was a shock.

“Sometimes it takes something like that to bring people closer together and that’s what it has done,” he said. “Things happen. You never know when and you never know who. I hate that it happened here, God I hate that.”

Jennings has been with the ROC since it opened in 2011. He was a client.

“Basically, the ROC brought me up,” he said. “I mean the way I was feeling, like everything was done and over with. They picked me up and brought me back to life, I guess you could say. They helped me so much.”

After the Nov. 6 shooting downtown, business leaders and residents are concerned about safety. Several came to the Nov. 13 Rock Hill City Council meeting to ask the council to address panhandling downtown after the shooting.

Jennings said he knows downtown business owners are concerned about clients at the ROC. To business owners, he offered an invitation.

“Come and see for yourself,” he said. “Don’t listen to all that hearsay out on the street.”

He and McKagan said most downtown panhandlers aren’t ROC clients.

“There’s still an issue,” McKagan said. “You can’t sweep it under the rug. We have to address it. The only answer is if you and I both work on it.”

Making a difference

Lawrence Stevenson said he knows firsthand how important ROC is to people. He moved to Rock Hill from Savannah, Ga., in 2011 and has been a client at the ROC since.

Stevenson said he has diabetes, cataracts and neuropathy, a condition stemming from his diabetes that causes weakness and pain in his peripheral nervous system. Stevenson said the pain and his cataracts have made it hard for him to find work. Thanks to his ROC advocate, who he called “momma bear,” he was able to get cataract surgery. Now, Stevenson works as a dishwasher at a downtown restaurant.

Stevenson is staying in the Men’s Warming Center at Bethel United Methodist Church while he saves up to get an apartment. The shelter opened Nov. 12. Before that, he said he was living in the woods.

“I don’t want to be in the shelter,” he said. “I don’t think anybody in their right mind would. But it’s some place where I can now actually get some sleep. I’m just a mile or two from where I work. I’m back on this side of town where I can get free resources and people who absolutely don’t mind helping whatsoever.”

When he and his mom, who he said isn’t physically able to move around easily, moved to Rock Hill, he said ROC is the main place they were able to find resources. Stevenson said ROC has helped with “sources for bill pay, food, directions, even medicine.”

Stevenson said he knows ROC has been in the news a lot, for good and bad reasons, but he said there’s no where else to go.

“I may be homeless,” he said, “but trust me, I’m not a beggar. I’m not a troublemaker.”

McKagan said he understands business owners are concerned, but he said the community needs to come together to work on the problems.

“The real issue is what are we doing as a community to help these people get the assistance they need,” he said.

McKagan said ROC is working with several other Rock Hill agencies to plan for a cohesive community center where agencies can work together to address the needs of the community. The plan is still in it’s infancy, but McKagan hopes the agencies will be able to transition into a central location in a year or so.

Jennings said a collection of agencies helping York County residents in need would make a big difference.

“Things just went uphill for me when I came here,” Jennings said. “I haven’t looked back since. I have so much to thank them for everyday.”

Jennings said ROC is open to anyone, and the agency tries to help everyone who walks through the door.

“Without this place a lot of people would be lost,” Jennings said. “Believe me, they really would.”

This story was originally published November 25, 2017 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Homeless say downtown Rock Hill center needed, without it many ‘would be lost’."