01-26-09 Common Council Meeting Agenda & Packet

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Board of Zoning Appeals -January 15, 2009 some physical damage to one of our buildings. We're down to ten people and we have been basically full every night and we see the need in the community to continue to grow. We have found that Our Lady of the Road is a very capable organization. They know the population that needs they services. They have a very appropriate facility for it and we believe it is the best option for our community in order to serve these people and keep them safe. We really do believe it is a public safety issue. There is a risk of people dying if we don't provide places for them on these cold nights so we're very much in favor of this. MR. HOBAN: You say it was due to damage to your building. Do you plan on repairing that damage? MR. VANDERVEEN: Not that building. That's our building at 532 S. Michigan Street. There's some internal damage in the areas where they slept and for a number of reasons that building is not in a state where we want to repair that part of the building. MR. HOBAN: Is there anyone else that wishes to speak in favor? MR. STEVE CANILERRI: The executive director at the Center for the Homeless, 8.13 S. Michigan Street. And I speak in favor of rezoning and allowing Our Lady of the Road to fill it's space with people that are in great need in our community. I speak at the director of the largest provider to our homeless population in our community. I speak to it because I receive I would image with Michael and David present, receive even more calls than they receive from our city officials. Not just in the winter but in the summer urging me and the center to provide housing for those that are found in downtown and that are quote and unquote "disruptive" to members of our community who visit. And so they call me asking what we can do. And yet we have a challenge out there and we have restrictions when there are those who are giving and caring and compassionate. And so I find it hard to believe that this proposal will be rejected. That would just be for the summer. Now we enter the winter, 32 degrees. The Health Department says 26 degrees and the social service providers we agreed let's make it 32 degrees, that's freezing. And quite honestly it should be much higher as Mike said. 33 degrees, 34 degrees, what's the difference? We have sent all of our elected officials a letter from this Continuum task force asking them, what will we do when it's between 32 degrees and negative 20? That's a 52 degree range in which, when we meet our capacity and Hope Ministries meet their capacity, and the YWCA meets their capacity and Life Treatment Center meets their capacity, that's 65 additional people in our community who are found homeless. What will the 66`x' person do between 31 degrees and negative 19? Eight people died towards the end of 2008 in Chicago because of the extreme weather conditions. I don't think we want that to happen in this great community. I don't think this community will let that happen. We would love to fake more than the additional 25 people that we take. There are certain restrictions and hazards that the Fire Department and Health Department has deemed on us. So we can't go beyond the 25 that-we do. That's about 20 additional men and additional 2 women and 2 to 3 families. And for the past 72 days, 69 of those 72 days we've been on weather amnesty and just about everyone of those 69 evenings we've had that number, 20 to 25 additional people. We've been interviewed so many times by the newspaper and the media asking what are we going to do because it's been so cold and on top of that this economy which has cost so many folks in our community to struggle. In our community, not this mythical bus that brings people into our community, in our own community, people that grew up in South Bend, that live in South Bend. Eighty seven per cent of the population we service is from St. Joseph County. So there's a desperate need for this services. I know this request is for weather amnesty but I hope that I can work with Catholic Worker to have them to look at doing this beyond just the winter months because we'll learn as we do thaw out sometime in March or April that the need is going to extend into the summer because the fact is.the economy won't change. We're 6