
{"id":26443,"date":"2012-06-14T12:03:16","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T16:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=26443"},"modified":"2012-06-14T15:41:08","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T19:41:08","slug":"ifc-good-neighbor-plan-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/06\/14\/ifc-good-neighbor-plan-approved\/","title":{"rendered":"IFC Good Neighbor Plan approved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><br \/>\nCHAPEL HILL \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0Following 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shelter, to be built near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Homestead Road. <\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shelter. <\/p>\n<p>Last May, the council approved plans for the IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community House Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shelter, which call for a two-story, 16,250-square-foot facility with 52 beds and 17 emergency cots for use on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153white-flag\u00e2\u20ac\u009d nights during inclement weather, on 1.8 acres at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. <\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n<p>Some residents of neighborhoods around the site \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0many of whom have opposed the shelter on that site from the get-go \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0said 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drop-in policy and identification requirements for shelter residents and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153guests.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Guests are those who stay overnight in emergency beds. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d committee member and Parkside II resident Steve Kirschner said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are here because the Good Neighbor Plan, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>According to the plan, shelter policy \u00e2\u20ac\u0153will prohibit anyone from being admitted to IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s emergency shelter or transitional housing programs on a drop-in basis,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Under the procedure, shelter guests will be screened at an authorized intake location, which could be IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s administrative offices or another yet-to-be determined approved location, and then transported to the shelter. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said IFC Executive Director Chris Moran. <\/p>\n<p>Tina CoyneSmith, a critic of the shelter plan and site and a resident of Parkside I, said the plan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s language and policies were unclear. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Part of the frustration some of us have had is that the language is ambiguous enough that you could do it differently,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This means that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t another emergency shelter in Orange County, but that the number of emergency beds could be reduced should an emergency shelter open in the future.<br \/>\nCouncil member Penny Rich said she was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disturbed by some of the things that were presented\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by critics of the plan and the lease agreement. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153These 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The new shelter \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which IFC officials hope to break ground on this summer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will enable the IFC to move its men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shelter out of the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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. <\/p>\n<p>Other council members said that because the IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shelter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26443"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26480,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443\/revisions\/26480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}