Amarillo City Council moves forward with new day shelter for the homeless

In a unanimous 5-0 vote, the Amarillo City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution that clears the path for a new daytime homeless shelter, a step forward in the city’s long-term strategy to address homelessness with wraparound services.

The new day center will be located at Southwest 5th Avenue and Bowie Street and is planned to replace the current Guyon Saunders Resource Center, which has been sold. The upcoming facility will serve as a critical daytime complement to the existing night shelter at Transformation Park, offering a safe space for Amarillo’s unhoused population during daytime hours and access to essential support services.

Under the deal, the city will lease the new facility for $4 million over 10 years. Once the lease term ends, the building—estimated to cost $10 million to construct—will be gifted back to the city. The remaining $6 million needed for construction will be covered by a nonprofit, continuing a public-private partnership model that officials say has already shown promise.

Jason Riddlespurger, the City of Amarillo’s Director of Community Development, has been leading the project, which he says has been in development for at least five years.

“This is a City of Amarillo solution to homelessness,” Riddlespurger said. “It’s not just a nonprofit or just the city—we had to come together years ago to build something that would actually work. I think this is a good plan, and I think it’s going to work.”

The Tyler Street Resource Center, which previously operated as the Guyon Saunders Resource Center, will lead the development of the new facility. Once construction is complete, the city will begin its lease and also relocate its Community Development Department offices to the new building from their current location in the Simms Municipal Building.

The facility is expected to serve between 150 and 200 people daily and will include a wide range of amenities and services:

Dedicated office space for mental health and healthcare providers

Classrooms and program space for life skills, employment readiness, and recovery support

A commercial kitchen capable of preparing and serving three meals per day

Coordination with Transformation Park’s night shelter to offer a seamless day-to-night system of care

“The night shelter was designed specifically for sleeping,” said Riddlespurger. “This new day center will do what the night shelter can’t—it’ll be a place where people can access services, attend classes, receive medical or mental health care, and get a hot meal.”

Riddlespurger also noted that the combined system is already making a difference. According to the latest Point-in-Time count, over 10% of Amarillo’s unsheltered population have been brought into the Transformation Park night shelter, where the city’s long-term goal is to help people transition from street homelessness to permanent housing.

The integration of the Community Development Department into the facility isn’t just for convenience—it reflects the department’s direct involvement in homelessness response and its goal of improving access to city-run services.

“We want everything to work nicely together,” Riddlespurger said. “We’ve talked about this across multiple city councils and leadership teams, and it just makes sense for us to be part of this.”

Construction on the new day center is expected to begin soon, though no timeline has yet been announced for completion. City officials say that once operational, it will represent a major asset—worth over $10 million—for Amarillo, not just in terms of infrastructure, but in the lives changed through coordinated care and support.