HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-25-19 Public Comment - J. McDevitt - HRDC Warming Center SiteFrom:Jody McDevitt
To:Loren Olsen; Agenda; Sarah Rosenberg
Subject:[SENDER UNVERIFIED]HRDC Overflow Warming Center
Date:Friday, October 25, 2019 11:57:05 AM
To whom it may concern:
I live at 2903 Westridge Drive, 10 houses from the proposed HRDC Warming Center overflow site,
and I am in favor of approving this special use permit.
I have lived in this house for nearly 23 years. My children attended both Morning Star Elementary
School and Sacajawea Middle School. In all those years, I was proud that our neighborhood included
a home for children and youth in need of shelter, the home now under consideration for the
Warming Center overflow shelter. If this special use permit is approved, I will have the same pride
that our community cares about those who need a warm place to sleep on a cold winter’s night, and
I will volunteer to assist the HRDC staff in whatever way is needed.
I am disturbed that yesterday an anonymous 2-page letter was left at my door urging me to object
to the special use permit. It was filled with inflammatory rhetoric about the dangers inherent in
housing homeless people. I trust my friends at Christ the King Lutheran Church who so generously
opened their doors to this same need for two winters, who tell me the problems were minimal. I
trust the HRDC staff, for whom I have enormous respect, to operate the shelter with both
compassion and concern for safety. I see no threat to the school population, since the shelter will
operate at night only. I am also not concerned about the ”threat” to the neighborhood’s R-1 zoning.
Please do not allow a few loud voices to turn our city into a place where those living on the margins
are vilified and disrespected. I want Bozeman, and my neighborhood, to be a place where we take
care of our fellow citizens in need.
Thank you for listening, and for the work you do to make Bozeman a good place to live for all.
Jody McDevitt
2903 Westridge Drive
Co-pastor, First Presbyterian Church
406-551-3262