By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
After months of presentations, hearings and deliberations, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted 6-2 to approve plans for the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service’s proposed Community House Men’s Shelter.
Approved plans for the project call for a two-story, 16,250-square-foot shelter with 52 beds, 17 emergency cots for use on “white-flag†nights during inclement weather, 16 parking spaces, offices and clinic space. UNC is providing the 1.8-acre property for the project – located at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., near the intersection of Homestead Road – at virtually no cost.
Prior to the decision to approve the plans, the council continued a March 21 public hearing regarding the proposal. Supporters and opponents of the plan packed the Chapel Hill Town Hall council chambers, with fire marshals turning others away as the room reached capacity, and public comments and discussion continued until after midnight. Most of those in attendance were in support of the IFC’s plans.
Council members Matt Czajkowski and Laurin Easthom voted against the plan. Czajkowski had proposed an alternate resolution that would have approved the special-use permit for the project, but without the 17 emergency cots. He urged the council to postpone approving the emergency beds while the IFC and others in the community looked for alternative solutions.
IFC executive director Chris Moran said having the 17 emergency cots was of critical importance.
“It would be like building a hospital without an emergency room,†he said in a Tuesday interview. “It’s so important that those folks not be left behind. What makes them different than those occupying the 52 beds?â€
Easthom expressed concern about how men would be transported to the shelter to use the emergency cots. IFC has said it would transport those men from its offices on Main Street in Carrboro to the shelter – a plan that it proposed to help ease concerns that the shelter would become a walk-up facility – but has not yet developed a specific plan.
The facility, which under the approved permit must be completed by May 2015, will enable the IFC to move its men’s shelter out of the town’s old municipal building on the corner of Rosemary and North Columbia streets, which it has used as a temporary location for more than 25 years.
Opponents of the plan – many who live near the site – argued that the new facility increases an already unfair burden on their neighborhood. IFC’s Project Homestart, a transitional shelter for women and children, and Freedom House, a substance-abuse recovery center, are both located close to the site. Opponents also cited concerns regarding the site’s proximity to Homestead Park and several preschools.
Mark Peters, who lives close to the site, said there should have been an open process to investigate possible sites for the facility.
“This is still a backroom deal,†he said, adding that the site was inappropriate for the project. “What we’re talking about is an over-concentration issue.â€
The council also voted unanimously to require that IFC develop a Good Neighbor Plan for council review and approval prior to entering into a lease for the Community House.
Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt urged neighbors of the proposed project, many of whom came out in opposition of the IFC plan, to get involved with the IFC in developing the Good Neighbor Plan. The council asked the IFC to come back with a report on the plan in September.
Moran said that the IFC’s next steps will be to get zoning permits, raise more money and put the project out to bid. Once the project is complete, he said, the organization will be better able to work toward its mission.
“Our primary functions in the future will be to feed folks that are hungry and shelter folks that are homeless,†he said.
Why not place the men in REAL HOUSING, and they can wake up and LEAVE THEIR NEW HOME and go to a JOB TRAINING center?
Why do they have to be placed in an ALL- CONTROLLING PRISON-LIKE INSANE ASYLUM, that costs ten-times as much as regular housing? Why the disrespect to the men?