HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-27-19 Public Comment - E. Schumann - HRDC Warming Center SiteFrom: Errol Schumann <errolschumann@yahoo.com>
Date: October 27, 2019 at 3:19:54 PM MDT
To: "srosenberg@bozeman.net" <srosenberg@bozeman.net>, "trogers@bozeman.net"
<trogers@bozeman.net>, "candrus@bozeman.net" <candrus@bozeman.net>, "tcunningham@bozeman.net" <tcunningham@bozeman.net>, <jkrauss@bozeman.net>,
"cmehl@bozeman.net" <cmehl@bozeman.net>, "ipomeroy@bozeman.net"
<ipomeroy@bozeman.net>
Cc: "montanaokie16@gmail.com" <montanaokie16@gmail.com>,
"mrsculver0798@gmail.com" <mrsculver0798@gmail.com> Subject: HRDC Homeless Shelter NOT IN MY BACK YARD!
HRDC Homeless Shelter NOT IN MY BACK
YARD! 10/27/2019
To City Planning and our City Commissioners:
It is true, I as a resident homeowner in Figgins Subdivision am a NIMBY. My wife and I have searched high and low for 3 years to be able to afford a home in a safe, single-family zoned residential neighborhood that our children could grow up in. A place where they could play freely and safely with other
neighborhood children and classmates. As much as I would love to see the HRDC succeed in providing a place for those in need to have warm shelter, I do not want it in our single family
neighborhood full of elementary and middle school children playing at the school grounds, a dark and overgrown park and all
the family homes between.
36 unrelated PEOPLE PER NIGHT!!! This is a hotel, not a compatible R-1 single family use. Our home in the same zoning is only allowed to have 4 unrelated people. This could potentially allow for thousands of users a year!!! This is more
than residents in our entire subdivision. Will the City Planning Department allow me to rent to 6 unrelated next week? or 20? 36???? They will all have background checks and make sure that they are compatible with our safe, neighborhood full of roaming children playing and having fun together.
Many of these "women and families" mentioned in this fast-tracked plan are victims of domestic violence. We do not want
our neighborhood to be a target for these situations and their aggressors." There are no background checks or applications for those staying at this shelter. Sex offenders, violent
offenders, and others would be allowed to stay right next to
unlocked school and school grounds full of vulnerable elementary and middle school children. Is this even allowable under
Montana law?
At the HRDC Men's shelter police were called on an average of 2 times per week last year. HRDC will "check weapons at the
door." Really so they expect these users to be carrying weapons and they will just keep the arsenal in a safe place on a nightly
basis? Currently, the HRDC has no committed plans for the future and this could turn in to a year-round men's shelter. Again, NIMBY. Not next to our kids' school. Not in the neighborhood our children and hundreds of other youth play and learn every day.
I work often at the Library and spend a lot of personal time there. I share this public space with many homeless who need a warm place to spend the day. There are often very scary and
uncomfortable scenarios I have personally experienced as a grown man. At times wondering if I was safe going to the bathroom
while homeless users experience delusional episodes were in the same restroom. The police have an office on site for this
reason. About 2 weeks ago I watched 2 police officers searching the property next to the Library with hands on their pistols ready to draw. I can only imagine this scenario at my
children's school full of hundreds of elementary students and teachers and police entering the building to apprehend the wrong person who was attracted to the neighborhood by the HRDC's shelter.
Designated smoking area at the shelter? Really? Sorry
neighbors and school kids, you can have secondhand smoke designated next door Its only 36 people a day though. The HRDC
should ban smoking at their shelters. This addictive drug costs these people lots of money and health and time that they could use toward figuring out their financially challenged
situations.
HRDC cannot enforce people to stay at the shelter once they have arrived so it is very likely that we will have people with no place to go roaming the neighborhood on daily and nightly basis. This neighborhood has no or limited street lights. Something that we have come to love to gaze at stars in
our safe neighborhood. Not something that we would fear with thousands of potential new visitors in our neighborhood that combined houses fewer in a calendar year. Our off the beaten
path neighborhood has very little police activity. Our understanding is that there is no security at the shelter. This
neighborhood has no street lights and very little police presence. There is a park up the street which neighborhood
children frequent and play their games. This whole public notice and application process has been expedited and done with as little notice as possible as HRDC realizes the many conflicts of interest of their plan with the
neighboring schools and family residences, family investments, and zoning. Please NO NOT APPROVE a Special Use Permit for this scary and incompatible use in our neighborhood. I fully
support the HRDC's goal of helping to house those in need but truly do not want this housing in my back yard. I am okay to
admit that I am a NIMBY when it comes to a homeless shelter a few blocks from my home and a few hundred feet from my children's school.
Thank you for considering my and many others' very valid concerns.
With Gratitude,
Errol Schumann
504 Cutting Street - Figgins Subdivision
Bozeman, MT
59715