If you’ve been around South Bend a few years, Thursday’s redevelopment commission meeting might have felt like stepping into a time machine. Or listening to a broken record.
The city and nonprofit homeless advocates trying to develop a low-barrier alternative to sleeping on the streets, and a packed audience saying the service is needed, just don’t locate it near me.
The city administration was asking the commission to approve spending $277,000 to buy five acres on Bendix Drive from the South Bend schools. The school board approved the deal Monday.
The vacant land is north of the corporation’s bus depot. It would be given to the Catholic charity, Our Lady of the Road, which would build and operate the New Day Intake Center. It would use the “housing first” approach where clients are offered help with substance abuse and mental health issues as they transition to permanent housing.
Our Lady of the Road now runs the Motels4Now low-barrier shelter in the former Knights Inn motel about two miles away on Lincolnway.
But after hearing opponents’ concerns for about an hour, the commission tabled the request.
Caleb Bauer is the city’s community investment executive director. He says no site for such a center could be perfect, but this one, on a bus line and near some grocery stores, in an industrial area, is a good one.
Opponents sharply disagreed. They say the Motels4Now has brought many problems to the area.
Tom Zmyslo told the commission that after his job at Bendix was eliminated 35 years ago, he founded Tom’s Car Care, which is next to the proposed site. His son Denny runs the business now.
"Believe me, my heart bleeds for the people that I see what goes on with their situations," Zmyslo told the commission. "But nobody wants it in their backyard. It's been kicked around from one end of town to the other. Where is a good place for it? God only knows, you know? It's a horrible situation.
"But after you invest all your life in building a business, can you withstand something like this to come near you?"
Many of the opponents said they were blindsided by the project, not having learned of it until news media coverage of the school board meeting. Even the redevelopment commission agenda item on the purchase didn’t state what the land would be used for.
Mike Garatoni, owner of a nearby Growing Kids Learning Center, said the project needs more public input.
"From my perspective, I heard about this less than 24 hours ago," Garatoni said. "I'm responsible as a business owner. We employ 40 people. But we also care for 200 children about an 8- to 10-minute walk from this proposed location. None of the parents who are enrolled in my school know about this. I'm pretty sure that if they were aware, they'd have an opinion, and it's going to come up."
Several Republican elected St. Joseph County leaders also spoke against the project, including county commissioners Carl Baxmeyer and Derek Dieter, and county council members Joe Thomas and Amy Drake. The site sits in Thomas’ district.
But Our Lady of the Road is raising money to build a facility that would be designed for this purpose. The group and the city say it’s unfair to compare it to the problems that have occurred at Motels4Now, in a hastily converted former motel.
Our Lady of the Road Executive Director Margie Pfeil, while noting Motels4Now has helped more than 200 people find housing, acknowledged complaints from businesses near the existing site.
"We intend to be responsible stakeholders and good neighbors to other stakeholders," Pfeil said. "If we have a purpose-built site it gives us a chance to incorporate from the beginning, in the design, things we know are necessary but are not available at our current location."
South Bend’s homeless shelters, Center for the Homeless and Hope Ministries, require sobriety in order to receive shelter and services. The city has been trying to find a place for a low-barrier intake center, where clients can receive immediate shelter and services even if they fail a drug test, since Mayor Pete Buttigieg appointed a homeless services task force in 2017.
The city has failed in attempts to site a center on south Michigan Street, and to build permanent supportive housing near downtown on West Washington Street, after neighbors feared the projects would drive up crime and lower property values.
Eli Wax, the redevelopment commission’s only Republican member, led the argument against approving the purchase. He said he doesn’t support the housing-first approach, and he’s seen the problems around Motels4Now.
"The impact is not just about what you're able to do for the people you're servicing," Wax told Pfeil. "That impact can have problems for those people around you as well."
Bauer noted the project would still need public input as it goes for a rezoning before the city’s common council. But the commission voted 4-0 to indefinitely postpone the purchase.
