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IFC's Special Use Permit Application for the the new Community House on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. is on the agenda of the March 21 Public Hearing. The meeting begins at Chapel Hill Town Hall at 7 pm. Supporters should be in their seats by 6:30.
The search for a permanent home for Community House has lasted over ten years and may be over soon! After the Public Hearing, the Town Council is likely to vote on the application later this spring.
FYI, the SUP application was reviewed -- and unanimously approved -- by four town Advisory Boards last month: Planning, Transportation, Pedestrian and Bicycle, and the Community Design Commission.
Show Your Support for Community House on facebook and at the Public Hearing!
For more information, contact Allan Rosen at project@ifcmailbox.org
Comments
I support Community House
Thanks for posting this, Allan. Not sure if I can make the hearing, but I definitely support the IFC and the proposed location. (Don't love it, but it's the best we've got.)
Neighbors and park users oppose *site*
1200 neighbors and park users (YMCA soccer parents and playground users) signed a petition opposing the *SITE* due to overconcentration of at-risk social services, and proximity to preschools, youth athletic fields, and playground. Our neighborhoods have the highest suburban crime rate which should be looked at when siting facilities that matter. We released a new video about the fact that our homeless sex offenders will be left out in the cold with nowhere to receive transitional services or stay on white flag nights (IFC's term for inclement weather nights - 200+ nights per year). IFC released some bogus crime studies where the author refused to publish geocoding data, which is missing crime in the homestead park area, pegs the police station as where most sex crimes occur, and failed to correlate crime with the women's shelter due to having the location wrong (as well as other issues).
Even among citizens who support the transitional shelter, many do not support having white flag night services at that site, which takes drunk and high men and where IFC does not require clients to present positive identification.
This proposed facility has $2.3M in *current* committed and requested taxpayer assistance (at least $500K requested last month that we know about). No word on what the anticipated final taxpayer contribution will be. And yet there was no publicly vetted criteria and no public process to site this facility. It was a total backroom deal.
Most Oppose Shelter "Site" - A column in today's Chapel Hill News which documents the survey sent out by two UNC students which show a number of interesting statistics such as the fact that 80% of neighbors surveyed oppose the shelter.
Visit www.abettersite.org for more information and recent youtube videos about the issues.
I'm inspired
I think I will use the Mark Peters method of advocacy: over 95% of the neighbor of the proposed IFC Community House support the approval of the SUP by the Chapel Hill Town Council.I think I'll skip the video. Oh, and as a veteran of the Chicago Daley political organization, I truly admire that 1200 "neighbors" petition....good work. See y'all at the hearing.
Bad weather usage
During the 2009-2010 service year, the current shelter provided 20,406 bed nights. 2,147 (~10%) of those nights were by individuals who stayed at the shelter solely for reasons of bad weather. Bed nights are calculated as number of individuals times number of nights. In this case, it is 14 individuals for 153 nights.