By Ben Robinson

Staff Reporter

brobinson@thepccourier.com

EASLEY — The Rev. Tracy Gantt and his wife, Sunshine, of New Deliverance Baptist Church appeared before Easley City Council on Monday night hoping to find a location for a homeless shelter in Easley.

“We want to keep the homeless off the street,” Gantt said. “Half of our congregation is homeless. They have nowhere to go, nowhere to get something to eat.”

Gantt said a similar mission, Haven of Rest in Anderson, helped turn his life around when ha faced a similar situation.

“I’m from here, right down the street,” Gantt said. “It used to be a beautiful place. But now there are drug dealers preying on the people. It’s not fair to people. It’s not fair to my mother.”

Mayor Larry Bagwell said he had done research on Gantt’s mission.

“I found out a lot of things,” Bagwell said. “Things I did not know about. But y’all have given to those people generously.”

Bagwell said he was told years ago that any effort to help the homeless needed to come from the county level.

“But we just need to find a way to take care of our own rather than go outside to try to find a place for the homeless,” Bagwell said. “We don’t want to turn our head on anything.”

Gantt reported that many of the families he works with have children and are looking to do whatever it takes to take care of their children.

“We want to help these families from turning from homeless to criminal,” Gantt said.

Bagwell promised his help in solving the problem.

“My door is always open,” Bagwell said.