Keeping a promise made last fall, Columbus officials and Love Chapel representatives have invited residents and business owners in the State Street area to meet to discuss how things are going in regards to individuals receiving services at Brighter Days emergency housing shelter.
The meeting will be from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday at the Cal Brand meeting room on the first floor of Columbus City Hall, 123 Washington St., according to a notice from the city.
Kelly Daugherty, Love Chapel director, will be a guest speaker at the gathering, saying the meeting is a followup to concerns expressed by State Street area residents and business owners last fall. Those concerns included perceptions that the emergency housing facility has brought homeless people to the residential area who have been loitering, stealing and using drugs, leaving drug paraphernalia behind on private property.
About 65 people attended a meeting last October to learn how the city intended to address their concerns about the shelter, which has operated out of a renovated former Columbus Township fire truck maintenance facility for two years.
“We made the promise we would follow up with them to see how our response is working,” Daugherty said of Monday’s planned meeting.
For more on this story, see Sunday’s Republic.
