ECHO Thrift Stores (Eureka Christian Health Outreach) — Local services in Eureka Springs

I was a tenant in one of their rentals in "Echo Village", the homes built by the store's owners with store proceeds & donations of money, materials & grants. The heater was broken on day one. I used space heaters & reported it to them for the first month, but they would not call for service.

So I called the Housing Authority & reported it to HUD. The owners were furious & made me sign a statement saying I'd see a counselor at ECHO's clinic. I went 3 times, & Medicare paid. A few months later I learned that in addition to MS, I have severe scoliosis. I need a large thoracolumbar spine reconstruction to relieve the pain & correct the deformity. I told them the recovery time is up to a year after the 1st 6 weeks in rehabilitation.

The next month, I got a "Non-renewal of Lease" notice, 5 months before lease end. They said "scheduling elective surgery will interfere with your non-negotiable move-out date". It was May & the AC shut off daily, & had to be powered back on. I told them to no avail so I installed window units. August brought a non-renewal reminder, but they'd changed it to "it was a transition house only to be lived in for one year".

By lease end in October I hadn't found a place. The heater was broken AGAIN. They replaced every home's entire systems around me, & wouldn't service mine. I'd emailed Suzie I was getting suicidal. She didn't reply. They evicted me in court, Suzie saying "she's exaggerating her disability, she normally walks & stands with no difficulty". I was given 2 weeks to vacate, & no place to go.

The day came, & FIVE sheriff deputies came to throw me out & put all my stuff in the ditch. They beat on the door & I wouldn't open it. Panicked, I took a huge handful of anxiety & pain meds to end it & woke to an officer kneeling over me. I spent 10 days in hospital.

They'd stopped taking my calls. I went to get my car, dog, some clothes & medications. The manager acted weird, saying "You can't be here without a police escort". I asked "Why do I need police? How could I get my car & dog without coming here?" I then spent 2 months homeless with my dog, my poor cats at the Humane Society. When I was in hospital they said my things were stored at Echo Village. Dan said not to worry, "find a place & move your things asap, they're protected". I hoped so...but no.

They actually kept almost every single thing, EVEN MY ROLLING WALKER, to sell at the store for profit. They'd dumped packed clothes out of clean totes with lids into dirty, broken totes. All name brand clothes were taken, & only cheap clothes returned. Suzie likely kept the two Hermès scarves I had for 30 years, one a vintage. Files, photos, irreplaceable documents, gone. I had many clothes to donate to "Good Shepherd Humane Society Thrift Store", all gone. I did get back a metal folding chair to sit on at least, & a small chest of drawers. They even took every swimsuit & my life vest. Who does that?

Over 2 months later I was pulled over by police for a bad headlight, & I learned how deeply depraved they really are. They filed a false affidavit claiming that after court I told a manager I'd burn down Echo Village, a felony terroristic threat. I spent 22 hours in jail & the month's income to get out. It's why the manager acted so weird. She kept the secret, even knowing I might get arrested while driving Uber passengers. Pure apathy.

I now face up to 6 years in prison & a $10,000 fine if I'm convicted. It has cost me almost everything already. Uber soon deactivated me, & my car was eventually repossessed. All of my belongings, a huge loss. I went to this store looking for stuff Dan said went there & they were rude & denied knowing about it. If you shop there, you may be buying my clothes, furniture, dishes, yard tools, decor, pet items...maybe even my walker.

UPDATE: 10/6/25 Case dismissed, for no reason except there wasn't a case. Regardless, I've lost everything. Thanks for reading this saga. Vote with your wallet. "Semper veritas",...

The prices were great. I didn't find a huge assortment of anything that interests me when I usually go thrifting (clothes, kitchen appliances, kitchenware). The book section was full of variety - that's great! Unfortunately, my shopping experience was a bit soured by the employees' use of their masks. Eureka Springs has a mask policy. This shop required a mask be worn during shopping and temp taken at the door. These measures are ineffective when ALL of your employees are wearing their masks with their noses completely exposed! The mask goes over your...

I had a little higher hopes after seeing that the clothes were priced fairly in the front building. But then I looked at Little Golden Books for our kids and they were all around $7. Pricing was particularly bad in the back building. It was higher than a lot of antique stores. Overpriced on furniture, artwork/prints, and tons of lamps. The back building is also where my wife got a headache from the mildew smell. I think they could do a lot more for their cause by lowering prices and thereby...