About 40 area residents and business operators crowded into the America and Roby Anderson Community Center on Thursday night. Some of them complained that homeless people are creating problems in their east side neighborhood, where the Brighter Days Housing emergency shelter opened two years ago.
Jan Gross, who said she was representing business and property owners, presented a petition with about 180 signatures asking that the facility be moved, saying it had been “shoved down the neighborhood’s throat.”
Gross said she understood there was a need for the facility, but a bigger one should be created in some other part of the community. Since the shelter opened, east side residents have had to endure increased crime and loitering on private property, she said.
“This is too small an area for what you are trying to accomplish,” Gross said of Brighter Days’ location at 421 S. Mapleton St. in a renovated firetruck maintenance facility owned by Columbus Township.
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She handed the petition to Columbus City Councilman Dascal Bunch, who represents the east Columbus area and attended the meeting with Tom Dell, an at-large city councilman.
Beth Dilley, who owns a warehouse at State and Mapleton streets, said families won’t let their children go to Pence Park to play because of the homeless people who loiter there, some sleeping on the picnic tables.
“Brighter Days is a magnet bringing undesireables to the area,” Dilley said.
Dilley also said Love Chapel, 311 Center St., is a magnet to draw people to the neighborhood for free food.
Brad Wedan, owner of Wedan Performance, 2042 Vermont Ave., said drug use and loitering in the neighborhood has increased since Brighter Days’ arrival, which he has reported to Columbus police.
“I deal with classic cars — high-end clients, and they don’t want to come into this neighborhood,” Wedan said.
How shelter works
Love Chapel Director Elizabeth Kestler, whose organization operates the emergency housing shelter, and Columbus Township Trustee Ben Jackson gave a summary of how the facility came to be located on South Mapleton Street.
The pair approached Columbus zoning officials in 2015 and got approval to locate an emergency housing shelter for single adults in the building. The facility opened with the capacity to house 20 men and 16 women in each of the gender-separated dorm areas, and this month is averaging about 15 men and six or seven women each night, Jackson said.
A two-page flyer detailing services, rules, safety and security, how and why Brighter Days clients may be suspended or removed was distributed at the meeting, answering many questions about how it operates.
However, among the complaints aired Thursday was an allegation that the east Columbus neighborhood was targeted for the facility’s location because it is where poor people live.
Jackson refuted that, telling the group that Columbus Township owned the vacant fire truck maintenance building and had been unable to sell it for more than a year. With the proximity to Love Chapel, which provides meals, a food pantry and community services to the disadvantaged, the building seems to be the right fit for an emergency housing facility, he said.
Prior to having the facility as an option, the two organizations had paid as much as $80,000 in one year to house homeless individuals in hotels as an emergency measure, at times to keep people from freezing to death, they said. The two organizations later partnered to provide housing in an apartment house on Cherry Street for emergency situations, which was also protested by neighbors for drug activity and loitering, as people there were not supervised around the clock.
Kestler and Jackson said they have made changes at Brighter Days to be responsive to neighborhood concerns, including opening a Recovery Engagement Center at 1951 McKinley Ave. Created in partnership with Centerstone, it is used as a drop-in center for Brighter Days clients and other homeless people when they leave the emergency housing facility. Brighter Days is open from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. the next day, with clients directed to public meal sites during the day.
One of the neighborhood’s main complaints is that there is nowhere for Brighter Days clients or other homeless people to go during the day, and they end up loitering around the neighborhood and nearby Pence Park. Kestler said individuals are provided with bus passes to meet with case managers or for medical care, and are encouraged to go to the center. But Brighter Days officials cannot mandate the clients go to the center, she said.
Although hours were cut back on the center this past summer, the drop-in center will resume 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours beginning in October, with the addition of showers and a laundry facility for those who stop in, Jackson said.
Nancy Johnson, an administrative assistant at the Salvation Army, asked people at the meeting how many of them had a roof over their head, and at their last meal had their choice of what and how much to eat.
“The people we are talking about here don’t have that privilege,” she said.
She invited the residents to consider becoming part of the solution by volunteering at the shelter, Salvation Army or Love Chapel.
“I’m not saying they aren’t causing problems,” she said. “But we need you to work with us — talk to us,” she said.
In response to neighborhood complaints, Brighter Days has dismantled a picnic table/shelter structure built as a senior project near Love Chapel after some individuals were loitering there, reportedly drinking and putting up hammocks at the site, Kestler said.
Refuting claims
She and Jackson refuted allegations that homeless people are being brought into the facility from other areas of the state, saying Brighter Days uses taxis to transport individuals who are not Bartholomew County residents to their stated county of residence or to a bus station to return there. The facility requires proof of living in Bartholomew County for 30 days before they can be admitted for emergency housing.
Kestler and Jackson said some of the problems residents and business owners are reporting may be individuals who are not Brighter Days clients but who are homeless, and possibly suffering from mental illness or drug addiction. While Brighter Days can try to help these individuals, it is up to each individual whether he or she will accept emergency housing services and to abide by the rules in the facility, which include no drug use, they said.
Chris Rutan, representing the Ninth Street Neighborhood Association, said the east Columbus neighborhood is not the only local neighborhood experiencing problems with loitering or drug use.
Dell and Bunch offered to facilitate a meeting between the residents, Brighter Days officials and Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde, that could be held at the Pence Apartments, near Pence Park in east Columbus.
Bunch, who lives in east Columbus, gave out his cell phone number to the residents and invited them to contact him at any time about their concerns.
“Unfortunately, this is not going to be a quick fix,” said Bunch, who did not think Brighter Days had brought all the problems to the neighborhood. “This is an effort we need to work on together.”
Dell said Columbus police officers are being responsive and doing extra patrols in the neighborhood, but not all of the behaviors being reported represent laws being broken.
“We hear what you are saying,” Dell said. “We do have these people in the community and we can’t just sweep them up like a vacuum. We have to be humanitarian about this and we are trying to balance that. By working together, and getting the mayor and police involved, we can start resolving some of these issues.”
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Address: 421 S. Mapleton St., Columbus
Purpose: An emergency housing facility for individuals 18 and older who are homeless in Bartholomew County.
Capacity: 36 individuals and three to four staff members housed in staff quarters and two bunk areas, separated by gender.
Check-in: 6 to 9 p.m. each night. Those who stay at Brighter Days will leave the facility between 9 and 9:30 a.m. daily. Guests will be served a continental breakfast in the morning but will be referred to meal sites in Columbus.
Amenities: The shelter has installed bike racks, and several bicycles have been donated by Healthy Communities and the Bike Co-op for guests to use.
Information: 812-344-4512
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For information about how to donate or provide assistance to Brighter Days Housing, contact Love Chapel at 812-372-9421.
For general information, visit Love Chapel’s website at columbuslovechapel.com
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