When I walked into the Sister Jose shelter for homeless women Tuesday, the alert quickly went out.
โThereโs a man inside,โ one woman shouted to the rest of the house.
It was nothing personal: Itโs just that thereโs no room, so when you walk in the front door, youโre already in the living space of homeless women โ a cot here, a couple chairs there, and a TV on in front.
That was the reason that this valuable local charity, one of few that focuses on sheltering homeless women alone, went looking for a bigger place. Thereโs no room at its current digs just west of Five Points on West 18th Street. So it tried to buy a fantastic, 5,000-square-foot property on North Seventh Avenue. Itโs a beautiful place, with a large house in front, a backyard enclosed by a wall, and a two-story building at the back of the property.
The West University Neighborhood residents put a stop to that deal. After months of back-and-forth, including some inane catastrophizing from nearby residents, on April 28, Sister Jose got permission from the zoning examiner to go ahead with the deal as long as the shelter accepted 15 conditions, such as that the outside would be kept free of litter, and that lockers would be provided for belongings.
The shelter was OK with the conditions, but decided not to buy the property. The reason, director Jean Fedigan told me Tuesday: The women wouldnโt feel safe in an area where residents had turned so hostile. Instead, the group is making an offer on a house near Santa Rita Park.
You read that right: The area near Santa Rita Park, where two murders of homeless people have occurred in the last 10 months, feels like a safer option than West University. Bravo, neighbors, bravo!
โItโs not far from where we are now,โ Fedigan said of the Santa Rita area. โThe women would certainly come there. If they are afraid, then they wonโt come.โ
Fedigan wouldnโt specify the location, noting that she has only made an offer.
โI thought the house on Seventh was wonderful. We all did,โ she said. But, โIn order to provide a loving and caring environment, youโve got to feel safe โ that youโre not being harassed, that youโre not doing something wrong, that people wonโt be angry with you.โ
As council member Steve Kozachik said, โThereโs an unmistakable irony in a situation when clients from a womenโs day shelter are so intimidated by the surrounding residents that theyโll choose to move out to a location thatโs a constant hotbed of crime.โ
In West University, people were angry, all right, as they showed at an April 21 zoning examiner hearing and earlier meetings. That day, among the objections was that the shelter would make property values decline by 30 percent.
It was an absurd exaggeration undermined by a witness who lives in Barrio Viejo, where the shelter currently operates. Laura Walton said she bought a house a couple blocks away 2 ยฝ years ago for $350,000, and though she walked past Sister Jose frequently, she didnโt know it was there for about a year. Meanwhile, several houses have been bought and renovated even closer to the shelter. It hasnโt mattered.
Others pointed to the idea that the shelter would increase crime, saying crime is higher in the area around its current location. Of course, that could have to do with the fact that it is an area with higher crime, independent of the shelterโs presence. And West University is no paradise either, crimewise: When I visited the proposed shelter site Tuesday, a young man was on the phone across the street, calling in a report of his car window being smashed. No homeless women were nearby to blame.
The charityโs attorney, Rory Juneman, pointed out that only two calls involving negative acts by shelter residents had occurred in the previous 3 ยฝ years. Those two got in an argument and called police.
โNo disturbing the peace,โ he said. โNo red tags. No incidents related to illegal drugs. No physical injuries and nothing involving public loitering or any impact to the neighbors.โ
That didnโt deter other neighbors from making this claim โ the shelterโs presence would upset the sense of safety at Mexicayotl Academy, which sits diagonally across the intersection.
Neighborhood resident Sara Chavarria read a letter from the school, and said in her own words that, โThe winter hours in which the shelter clients will be exiting and entering the building align with hours during which parents are dropping off or picking up students at the school.โ
Which made me say to myself, โSo?โ
Neighbor Chris Leighton complained that foot traffic would increase by 150 pedestrian trips per day. Again โ so?
I knocked on the door Tuesday of a neighbor who argued during the hearing that the shelter would set off a โcycle of decayโ in the neighborhood. His yard was full of weeds and the paint was chipping.
Perhaps the greatest of all ironic claims were those raised by neighbors such as attorney Dee-Dee Samet Chandler, who said she supports the homeless in her charitable work, but opposes this shelter being placed near her property.
What the West University neighborsโ arguments added up to was this: Homeless shelters belong somewhere else, in a poorer neighborhood, not here. The weakness in that argument was summarized by Sister Jose volunteer Cindy Rupp:
โThere is not a neighborhood that is going to welcome Sister Jose with open arms. I donโt doubt that everyone here would like to help these women, just not here. โJust not hereโ seems to be the message of every neighborhood. โWe want to help the homeless as long as they are invisible in our daily lives.โโ
Itโs a shame that spirit made a safer neighborhood feel unsafe to people who needed their welcome.
