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Rezoning Sought For Winter Amnesty Shelter

Derek Jensen
/
Wikimedia Commons

 

  

  The Area Plan Commission of St. Joseph County has passed a zoning issue that would create a new location for the winter amnesty shelter in South Bend this year. The County Council still needs to approve the measure.

The property on Tutt Road is currently a unused warehouse. It needs to be rezoned from light industrial to mixed use and receive a special exemption before it can be used as a night shelter for people who are homeless this winter.

This year the shelter’s former location is no longer available and it needs a bigger space to house women for the first time, after a similar facility closed.

David Vanderveen is the director of Hope Ministries, which runs the shelter.

“I believe that the council understands that this is a critical, urgent public health need in our and it’s something that we all understand. It’s not something that’s easy to do it’s not something that we wanna have to do but given that we have folks living on our streets, it’s something that’s needed.”

Some neighbors around the Tutt Road site are against the shelter being there, citing increased foot traffic and panhandling in the area but Vanderveen said they plan to do neighborhood outreach. He said at their former location neighbors had similar complaints when it was proposed, but the problems didn't come to fruition.

Next year Vanderveen said they hope to have a more permanent solution to the winter amnesty program in an intake center championed by South Bend Mayor Pete Buttiegieg.

The council is scheduled to take the final vote on the rezoning on Monday.