River Bend Neighbors Voice Opposition To Shelter Siting
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006River Bend residents and neighborhood board representatives were among the more than one hundred people turned out for Monday’s Des Moines City Council meeting. Dozens packed the City Council chambers to voice their opposition to the proposed development of a $6.1 million homeless shelter in the Cheatom Park neighborhood.
The shelter, which is run by Central Iowa Shelter and Services, is slated to be moved from its current location at 205 - 15th Street. Until recently the shelter was on the fringes of downtown Des Moines. But with the extension of the east-west leg of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard to the south of the shelter, and proposed $160 million Riverpoint West housing and commercial development nearby, city leaders have proposed moving the shelter out of downtown.
An article by reporter Jason Clayworth in the Tuesday, September 26 Des Moines Register further explained:
Don Curry, vice president of the Cheatom Park neighborhood association, said residents feared that drug addicts, alcoholics and sex offenders would live at the shelter or frequent the area. He noted that a city park is a five-minute walk from the site, and that homes are as close as 200 feet.
Carolyn Jenison, president of the River Bend neighborhood association, held up a map showing more than two dozen other service agencies in the area, such as group homes or shelters for recovering addicts. “I’m asking we just share the load” and locate the proposed shelter elsewhere, she said.
The proposal was unveiled in June by a committee of metro leaders, including Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, Des Moines City Councilman Chris Coleman and West Des Moines Mayor Gene Meyer.
The plan calls for replacing a homeless shelter at 205 15th St. with an expanded, updated facility south of Interstate Highway 235 and east of Keosauqua Way. The Iowa Department of Transportation owns the now-vacant 2.4-acre site.
The current shelter, run by Central Iowa Shelter and Services, has space for about 120 people. The proposed facility, which would be run by the same group, would hold about 175 and offer expanded social programs.
City officials have said the shelter should not be expanded at its current site, which is in an area that could one day include a $165 million housing-and-commercial project known as Riverpoint West.
Neighborhood residents complained Monday that they were not part of the committee to evaluate sites, noting that one criterion the team used was proximity to homes.
Derek Bastian, pastor at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, said that with its choice of site for the new facility, the metro leaders’ committee was telling people who live near his church that “we’re invisible.”
Jean Brown, director of the shelter, was visibly shaken by the intense opposition to the plan. “What I’ve heard today” concerning the fears expressed by residents “is inaccurate, to say the least,” she said.
More than 15 people spoke to the council. In the end, the council directed the site committee to meet with neighborhood leaders within 30 days. Future public meetings will be held before a final decision is made, the council said.
A free seminar called “History Pays: Increase the Value of Your Home with Historic Preservation” will be offered
