IFC Good Neighbor Plan approved

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL – Following a year-long process that drew criticism from some neighbors, the Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday voted unanimously to approve a Good Neighbor Plan for the new Community House Men’s Shelter, to be built near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Homestead Road.

In addition, the council voted 6-1 to approve a 50-year land lease agreement with Inter-Faith Council for Social Service for the shelter site. Council member Matt Czajkowski cast the lone dissenting vote, saying he could not vote for a lease that did not include a timeline for the IFC to vacate the town building at the corner of Rosemary and North Columbia streets, the site of the current men’s shelter.

Last May, the council approved plans for the IFC’s Community House Men’s Shelter, which call for a two-story, 16,250-square-foot facility with 52 beds and 17 emergency cots for use on “white-flag” nights during inclement weather, on 1.8 acres at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The council then required that the IFC develop a Good Neighbor Plan for council approval. The plan outlines the community house program; safety, health and security rules for shelter residents; control of loitering and littering; crime-prevention strategies; community education; mediation and dispute resolution; and more.

To develop the plan, the IFC assembled a committee representing surrounding neighborhoods, homeless persons, congregations and property owners close to the proposed project. The committee began meeting last July.

Some residents of neighborhoods around the site – many of whom have opposed the shelter on that site from the get-go – said they felt that the committee had been stacked with shelter supporters and that the plan did not address some of their concerns, including issues with the shelter’s drop-in policy and identification requirements for shelter residents and “guests.” Guests are those who stay overnight in emergency beds.

“We’re not here to dispute the site of the shelter. That debate is in the past. We need to move forward and work together to make the shelter a success in its location,” committee member and Parkside II resident Steve Kirschner said. “We are here because the Good Neighbor Plan, as it’s currently written, does not do what I believe it was intended to do. Because of the drop-in policy, the identification requirements, it does not give the neighbors confidence that it will be a safe addition to the neighborhood.”

According to the plan, shelter policy “will prohibit anyone from being admitted to IFC’s emergency shelter or transitional housing programs on a drop-in basis,” but that “[i]f drop-ins occur, Community House staff and volunteers will explain emergency shelter and transitional housing application procedures and refer these individuals to other social service agencies when needed.”

Under the procedure, shelter guests will be screened at an authorized intake location, which could be IFC’s administrative offices or another yet-to-be determined approved location, and then transported to the shelter.

“I can’t say that things are black and white and we can guarantee there will never be drop-ins. There could be. But we know what we will do if such a thing occurs,” said IFC Executive Director Chris Moran.

Tina CoyneSmith, a critic of the shelter plan and site and a resident of Parkside I, said the plan’s language and policies were unclear.

“Part of the frustration some of us have had is that the language is ambiguous enough that you could do it differently,” she said.

Under the approved plan, the shelter would run background checks on any residents or guests prior to their staying there. Moran said residents would be required to have an ID before they could have long-term residency, or at least be working on obtaining an ID.

“This means that we don’t want to leave people out on the street to be cold, to be medically in trouble or in any other situation if they have agreed to get their official ID,” he said.

Critics of the plan have also expressed concern about the inclusion of the 17 emergency beds at Community House. Moran said the beds were necessary because there isn’t another emergency shelter in Orange County, but that the number of emergency beds could be reduced should an emergency shelter open in the future.
Council member Penny Rich said she was “disturbed by some of the things that were presented” by critics of the plan and the lease agreement.

“These are human beings we are talking about. They are down on their luck sometimes, but, you know, you just have to give them a chance,” she said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

The new shelter – which IFC officials hope to break ground on this summer – 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. Czajkowski made a motion to amend the lease such that the IFC would be required to move out of the building within four years, but it failed, 5-2, with Czajkowski and council member Jim Ward voting in favor.

Other council members said that because the IFC’s move out of the building is also contingent upon them opening a new Community Kitchen facility in Carrboro, subject to approval by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, they did not want to delineate a timeline.