TAMPA, Fla. — Tonight, Tampa Bay's largest veterans shelter and service center— New Beginnings of Tampa— is facing turmoil.
Its owner and CEO allegedly fired nine veterans who worked for him, including all of the senior management. Meanwhile, he's facing accusations of racism.
10 Tampa Bay's Hannah Dineen spoke with those veterans who were terminated as well as the owner and CEO, Pastor Tom Atchison.
The nine former employees say they'll never work for Atchison again. They said the tipping point was racist remarks directed toward volunteers that he made at a New Beginnings group birthday party in February, after which, they planned to resign. However, they said before they could resign, they were fired.
Neonkita Frazier is a volunteer with the non-profit "Seniors In Service of Tampa Bay," which was a partner of New Beginnings. She was there when the remarks were allegedly made in February and said it was a habitual occurrence.
"He would call us *******, he would call us **********, he'd say you're listening to ********* music, and then he'd say he was joking," Frazier said. "He used to leave money around us and we didn't bother and he'd say, you guys are the nicest ******* I've ever seen."
In this case, the asterisks signify the n-word and other racist slang.
While not citing a reason, the program manager of Seniors In Service of Tampa Bay confirmed it suspended its partnership with New Beginnings of Tampa after that party.
The nine former employees who were fired in February insist the comments were not an isolated incident.
"He didn't want Black people to sit in the front of the house because it looked like it was a ghetto," Veteran Outreach Director Tri Tran said.
Former New Beginnings Program Director Andy Reyes said, "There was a report of him saying that our Black clients that were playing chess, that the only way they knew how to play chess and they were Black, is that they were in jail before."
In an on-camera interview exclusive to 10 Tampa Bay, Atchison said the comments were taken out of context or were never made.
"Never did. I don't know where [Frazier] got that from or why she thinks that. Because I would never call somebody names like that," Atchison said. "I did say it looks like a ghetto here. 'You guys can't be here, go to the smoking area.' But it wasn't to Blacks, it was to the Whites and Blacks that were sitting there looking horrible."
But his former employees say what they heard made them want to resign.
"We basically were tired of hearing those things, and we decided that...we didn't want to be part of it anymore. But before we actually went to that next step, it was announced that we were all fired instead," Reyes said.
Atchison says he never wanted a majority of those employees to leave. He said this entire situation stems from his firing the former executive director, Ian Donnell, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who'd been spearheading the veteran programming and who'd been trying to purchase New Beginnings of Tampa from him.
"He wanted to take God out of the circumstance," Atchison said. "He wanted to make it a place where just his people were here. He had his own agenda, and it wasn't my agenda."
Atchison claims Donnell poisoned the former employees against him.
"You got nine disgruntled people who are mad that Ian took with him, and they're saying these things," Atchison said. Those former employees tell 10 Tampa Bay that this is not true.
What both parties can agree on is this has been a major shake-up for New Beginnings, a federally funded organization that receives roughly $70,000 a month from the VA.
Atchison said the program has essentially started from scratch. Presently, New Beginnings of Tampa cannot take in new residents until its new staff is cleared through the VA.
Its senior staff currently includes no military veterans.
Former Veteran Outreach Director Tri Tran said, "For him to not have any veterans there, even though he has a shelter full of veterans is concerning. It is concerning to me because only a veteran will know veteran issues. We can relate with the mental issues, the physical issues, the screams, nightmares, anyone who has PTSD issues or medical issues. When you have a staff that is staffed with no veterans, that defeats the whole purpose of a veteran program."
The former employees of New Beginnings said they want to work with the VA to create a situation for these veterans outside Atchison's direct control.
"My goal right now is to try to establish or reestablish what we had going on over there somewhere else, under a different name," Andy Reyes said. "And that way we can do what we could have to do to help more veterans that are in need."
Since this staffing shakeup, New Beginnings has closed its partner facility, St. Michael's Homeless Veteran Outreach Center in Tampa, a place for veterans to access a variety of services beyond housing. After a long renovation process, it opened this past September.
Pastor Tom Atchison said the expansion was unnecessary and they'll continue to do that work in their housing facility.
Former Executive Director Ian Donnell chose not to issue a comment in response to this story.
The VA said it's still working with and funding New Beginnings of Tampa but did not respond to our questions about whether it is investigating Atchison's alleged behavior.
In a statement, a representative for the VA in Tampa shared:
"We have temporarily paused new referrals (not funding) to New Beginnings of Tampa due to their recent personnel turnover. However, we continue to work with New Beginnings and their newly hired staff to ensure they have adequate, trained staff as well as record of documentation requirements outlined in the contract to ensure they continue to provide quality care and services for Veterans experiencing homelessness."