Parents fear shelter move

Homeless shelter leaders trying to relocate are hearing again the argument they’ve heard for the last 24 years: Not in my neighborhood.

The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service would like to move its downtown Community House men’s shelter to a site at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The move to Rosemary Street in 1985 was never a permanent one, and the council had the proposed site, at the intersection of Homestead Road, in mind before the University offered the land last year.

Town leaders want the shelter to leave downtown permanently, too, but residents of a dozen Homestead-area neighborhoods have banded together with concerns about what the move will mean for them.

The fate of the shelter now rests in a balancing act between the interests of the three groups.

The neighborhoods

Tina CoyneSmith, a resident of the Parkside neighborhood who is organizing opposition to the move, said the Homestead site poses public safety problems.

She said residents worry about the site’s proximity to Homestead Park, day cares and residential areas, including Chapel View and Chapel Ridge student housing.

“There is a direct connection between homelessness and crime, substance abuse and severe mental illness,” she said. “We’re not motivated by a fear of a ‘boogeyman.’

“Our claims are based on substantiated facts.”

CoyneSmith said residents are concerned that men may loiter near the shelter.

“There’s parts of that population that can’t hold down a job. They are chronically homeless,” she said. “Where are those people going to be? Those are the ones that are going be in the park.”

She also said the shelter’s move will add to an already heavy concentration of social services in northwestern Chapel Hill.

The women and children’s homeless center, HomeStart, the Department of Social Services and Freedom House Recovery Center are all nearby.

“Within 1 quarter square mile, you’ve got all of those things, and public housing additionally, which is 1 percent of the land in Chapel Hill,” she said. “It’s literally in my neighborhood.”

The Inter-Faith Council

Chris Moran, the executive director of the council, said the Homestead Road site is as close to perfect as it gets.

“The location is one that we studied and reviewed before it became a gift,” he said. “It’s terrific for a lot of reasons.”

He said the site has major advantages like being located on a major transportation corridor. Moran also said the nearby human services and churches would only benefit the shelter’s population.

“When you are vehicle-less, having services around you is a greater incentive,” Moran said.

He said Community House would provide free clinic services the women’s shelter could use.

“All of the services may be close by, but it’s going be to their benefit.”

He also said some safety hazards the neighborhoods claim, like sex offenders near vulnerable child populations, are unfounded.

“We won’t be able to accept (sex offenders) because we’re within 1,000 feet of the United Church nursery and the park,” he said. “That’s a state law.”

Moran said the problems the neighborhoods identified in the homeless are qualities found everywhere and should not be pawned off as those of the shelter’s residents.

“These problems exist in every neighborhood, in every household, in every school,” he said. “Problems that we’ve described are not unique to the homeless population.”

The town

To add to the fray, the Town Council has said it needs the shelter’s town-owned building back.

The council has not yet placed a deadline on the shelter to vacate.

“I and others appreciate the complexity of this issue,” council member Jim Ward said. “It doesn’t need a demand placed on it.”

At an Oct. 19 hearing, some council members, like Ed Harrison, said opposing parties must communicate to reach a solution.

“I propose that at some point there could be a mayor’s committee,” Harrison said. “At some point I think it could be useful.”

Both Moran and CoyneSmith said they would welcome conversation, but they are unsure if a compromise is possible.



Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.