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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-21-19 Public Comment - O. Okie - HRDC Warming Center Site-1From:Chris Mehl To:Agenda; I-Ho Pomeroy Subject:FW: Proposed HRDC Warming House Next to Morning Star School Date:Monday, October 21, 2019 4:15:53 PM Attachments:image.png Chris Mehl Bozeman Deputy Mayor cmehl@bozeman.net 406.581.4992 ________________________________________ From: Okie Okie [montanaokie16@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, October 21, 2019 3:58 PM To: Jeff Krauss; Terry Cunningham; Sarah Rosenberg; Cyndy Andrus; Chris Mehl; Tanya Andreasen Subject: Proposed HRDC Warming House Next to Morning Star School Good afternoon. In preparation for the 15 day comment period for this application, residents in the surrounding neighborhoods are requesting your feedback. There are many concerns and questions that we need you to address. The below questions come straight from HRDCs Application dated Oct 8th 2019 and represent the first round of concerns and comments put forth by residents in the surrounding area. With no opportunity for a public hearing, we are limited to email, phone and any private and public meetings we can manage to organize within a limited timeframe. We want to stress that this issue is not about lack of compassion. It's about location. We all understand the need for homeless shelters, but as a community, we must choose appropriate locations. The health and safety of residents must come first. Ignoring the risks with this location would be a disservice to our community. If approved, this Special Use Permit is "indefinite" as stated by, Ms. Rosenberg, the associate planner reviewing the application. It is ludicrous and undemocratic that a PERMANENT change in use for a home in a densely residential area (R1 Zoned Area), sitting directly between two very busy schools, which would impact so many people, could be approved "administratively" by one person without requiring a vote or comment from city commissioners or warrant a public hearing. The residents of Figgins, Alder Creek, West Meadow, Sundance Springs, Meadow Creek and all families with children in Morning Star and Sacajawea Schools eagerly await a reply from your office. We have heard from the HRDC and we have read the development review application, it is time for us to hear from our elected city officials. Thank you all in advance for your attention to this matter. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BELOW QUESTIONS ARE PULLED DIRECTLY FROM THE HRDC APPLICATION FOR SPECIAL PERMIT Please reference page and paragraph PAGE 5 - INTAKE GUIDELINES "All participants are asked for identification when signing their participation agreement. Lack of identification does not impact a participants eligibility to receive services" HRDC offers low barrier shelter to the homeless. In our last meeting HRDC confirmed that they do not perform background checks or screening to determine if residents are criminals. The shelter will process 36 people per night at max capacity. The shelter will be open for 6 months. Seasonal usage of this facility could range from 1500 on the low end (10 per night) to 5400 (at full capacity) Note - usage is defined as beds used per month. Many individuals and families could stay multiple days. HRDC will not know if individuals visiting the shelter are mentally ill, drug addicts, felons, etc. There is not a background check, because they do not refuse service. This creates a major safety risk for the residents of Figgins and surrounding neighborhoods. PAGE 5 - GUEST CONFIDENTIALITY SECOND PARAGRAPH: Staff and volunteers are to maintain client confidentiality at all times. If a person enters the warming center looking for another person, use the following verbiage, "I cannot confirm or deny if that person is here; however, I can take a message......" Because the shelter location is public knowledge, we are very concerned with unwanted visitors. If a HRDC resident is fleeing a violent relationship, a drug problem, a money problem, etc. they are bringing those problems and threats directly to our neighborhood. In addition, they are exposing our children to those threats. What happens if an angry father (high on meth) knocks on the wrong door? What happens if an HRDC resident owes a drug 2000.00 and he comes to collect in our neighborhood? There are a thousand scenarios to consider and they all put Figgins residents at risk. We can not examine the impacts of this shelter on an emotional, surface level. We must considering the potential for real impacts to the residents. PAGE 8 - GUEST LEAVING PREMISES AND RETURN FIRST PARAGRAPH: "If a staff or volunteer witness a guest leaving the property, they will need to inform the guest that they are not permitted to return the following night." As residents, we are very concerned with people leaving the shelter at night. HRDC cannot control this. They do not have the power to stop someone. Someone could leave during a smoke break and nobody would know. Again, there is no vetting of these individuals so we have no idea what we are dealing with. If that person leaves the shelter, they would be roaming our neighborhood which creates a safety risk to the residents of Figgins and surrounding neighborhoods. If this person is a criminal and chooses to commit a criminal act, it would happen. PAGE 8 - GUEST PARKING AND SHUTTLE LAST SENTENCE: "Guests will be provided with transportation to HRDC main office at 7:00 am each morning." HRDC will encourage guests to take the shuttle, but they can't make people do anything. If its a nice day and 15 HRDC residents decide to walk down to our neighborhood park they can't be stopped. Police can't stop them because they haven't broken any laws. When this happens, HRDC residents would be sharing a sidewalk with children walking to school. Their interaction with children and residents would be unavoidable. Walking in any direction from the HRDC home, HRDC residents would be required to cross 2 cross-walks used by children as they walk to school. This creates a major liability and safety issue. Most of our children walk to school with friends, unsupervised by an adult. What happens if a HRDC resident decides to use the bathroom next to the sidewalk? What happens when a 1st grader picks up a dirty needle? What happens when a mentally ill person wants to chat with kids on the sidewalk, exposing them to inappropriate material, language, etc? If there is a crisis situation at the HRDC shelter, how will police re-route children on their way to school? If someone is expecting them at school early, who will notify their parents and the school? By approving this special permit you are creating health and safety risks for the area residents, especially children. PAGE 8 - SMOKE BREAKS FIRST PARAGRAPH: "Staff or volunteer monitored smoke breaks will occur for fifteen minutes at 8:00pm, 9:00pm and 10:00pm. An additional smoke break at 6:00am does not require supervision because it coincides with the first wake up announcement." Figgins residents with homes that border this property are very concerned with the amount of smoking and potential for noise disturbance. With a capacity of 36 per night, dozens of people could be smoking at once during the designated breaks. Most of Figgins residents are young families. Bed time for most is between 8pm and 9pm. If calls are made to the police, additional neighbors would feel the impact. Homeowners bought houses in this neighborhood specifically for the R-1 designation. They did not make the largest investment of their lives to live next to a house that would house 36 individuals, many of whom will be smoking on the property most of the evening and early hours of the morning. Would you like to live next door to a home with 36 people? Would you like to smell cigarette smoke each evening for 6 months? How would you like to see the value of your home drop because nobody wants to buy a home next to a homeless shelter? For many of us our home is our most valuable asset. PAGE 15 - BEHAVIOR LAST PARAGRAPH: "The warming center reserves the right to require guests with a history of inappropriate behavior to leave the premises. The warming center is not responsible for the health and safety of a guest once they have been asked to leave the premises." If refused, where will these people go? If they get upset and leave, then they would be walking through our neighborhood. If this happened, we would have a person refused based on bad behavior walking through our neighborhood. Is this person confrontational? Are they under the influence? Do they have weapons? Does he or she have a history of violence? We don't know. That's the issue. This creates a safety risk. PAGE 16 - WEAPONS FIRST PARAGRAPH: "Any other weapons including but not limited to knives, mace, bear spray, swords, razors, throwing stars, nun chucks, metal knuckles must be stored by a staff member in a labeled manilla envelope in a secured and locked location: weapons must be returned to guests upon guest departure in the morning." Again, HRDC does not have the ability to control the residents of this home. The shelter will be ran by 2 HRDC staff who ask for weapons to be checked at the door and those weapons are returned in the morning. Will they frisk the guest if they suspect the guest may be hiding a weapon? How will they know that they have, in fact, checked all weapons? When we asked HRDC about weapons in our first town-hall meeting they referenced nail files, yet the description in the application references knives, razors, metal knuckles, etc. 36 people and 2 HRDC staff members checking weapons PAGE 17 - SAFETY AND POLICE ISSUES This entire section is a reminder of the type of behavior that is possible within a shelter. Violence, intoxication, fighting, drugs, etc. HRDC volunteers have a 5 step procedure to properly communicate with police. What if a fight spills into the street? Last year there were 80+ calls at one HRDC warming center in a 5 month period. Our neighborhood rarely experiences any police calls. This will negatively impact our neighborhood character. This is very concerning. PAGE 18 - MORNING SCHEDULE FIRST PARAGRAPH-: "5:00AM - Front door is unlocked. Coffee is made. Guests may come and go as they please." HRDC claims that they will transport everyone to and from the industrial drive location, yet they cannot force anyone to get into the van. It's hard enough to get 36 willing people to do something, let alone 36 people, some of which with mental illness, addiction issues and or a criminal background. This final concern is a big one. Please take the time to read in detail. Think about the safety risks for our children and our schools. Please consider the liability here. You have the power to approve or reject this application. This is not about lack of compassion, it's about location. HRDC does great work but they chose a poor location for this shelter. You must consider the risk associated with HRDC's proposal. In the last several years our country has been through some terrible tragedies. Many of those tragedies were avoidable. People knew the risks and they ignored them. They knew someone had a gun or was mentally ill. They saw the warning signs but did nothing. The warning signs with this proposal are glaringly obvious. Bottom line, this shelter greatly increases the health and safety risks for residents in Figgins and surrounding neighborhoods. It would be extremely irresponsible for the City to approve this application considering those risks. PROXIMITY TO MORNING STAR SCHOOL AND SCHOOL CROSSWALKS The proposed HRDC shelter home is 287 Feet from the Morning Star School property. That measurement is taken from the HRDC proposed Shelter to the Morning Star playground where morning walkers and bikers will stage before going into the building. There is a path from the cross-walk in front of the HRDC Shelter that leads directly to the school. The HRDC shelter property boarders the cross-walk and sidewalk that our children use to walk and bike to school. Please see below aerial image with measurements. It's just too close. If there is a crisis situation at the HRDC. If someone there commits a crime, then runs from the police and a foot pursuit follows into school hours, the school would be required to go on lock-down. Think of any police interaction gone bad and by default it's 287 feet from school property where elementary children learn and play. Its only 21 feet from the cross walk they use. That is way too close. There's a reason some sexual offenders are required to stay 300 ft from a school property. There is a reason we have appropriate zoning restrictions in our city. Those restrictions are in place for many reasons and the most important is the health and safety of the community. Approving a special permit to process 36 mystery HRDC residents per night this close to young children in a densely populated family community is unacceptable. [image.png] We eagerly await your response. Sincerely, Residents of South Bozeman