‘I don’t want to welcome you.’ Neighbors spar with Interfaith over new shelter location
Interfaith Sanctuary is buying new property on State Street, but residents in the nearby Veterans Park neighborhood still aren’t sold.
The shelter for people who are homeless plans to move from its location at 1620 W. River St. to the building of a former Salvation Army thrift store at 4306 W. State St.
The new location is in the Veterans Park neighborhood, a place Executive Director Jodi Peterson told the Statesman last month that her team chose in part because it had “thoughtful neighbors that have shown acceptance.”
The neighborhood is already home to Valor Pointe, a 27-unit apartment building across the street at 4203 W. State, which houses veterans who were homeless and provides them with services.
On Wednesday, though, neighbors were overwhelmingly against the project, even though several said they supported the shelter’s mission. During a public meeting required by the city as part of the development process, neighbors talked about their fears about the shelter, which would offer 276 beds to individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
“This may sound heartless, but I don’t want to welcome you to my neighborhood,” Atanacio Ciluaga told Peterson.
More than 280 people were online in the meeting at one point. Opponents expressed concerns about sex offenders (Peterson responded that people with sexual offenses are not allowed to stay at Interfaith Sanctuary), and drugs and alcohol that they worried guests at the shelter may bring into the neighborhood.
Those who weighed in Wednesday also spoke about fears for their children’s safety, what the shelter would do to crime rates in the area, and what it would do to their property values.
“You are asking our neighbors to take a very substantial risk,” one man said. “Are you willing to compensate them if their property value goes down?”
Peterson responded that while she didn’t have a good answer to that question, because she had never built a new shelter, she did consider herself a good manager of a homeless shelter.
Many said during the four-hour meeting that they felt excluded from the decision-making process required to move the shelter from River Street to State Street.
In total, the project will cost just shy of $5 million, Peterson told the Statesman. It would represent a major expansion — the shelter had 184 beds before the pandemic but now only about 140 can stay there. The new building would nearly double that.
Much of the money to pay for the expansion would come from donations. Some of it would come from the sale of the River Street shelter property. That information led one person to ask why the shelter would sell its old location before getting approval for operation at the new one.
“I went on faith and hope,” Peterson said. “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll own a building that I’ll have to do something else with. But I believe in this project, and I believe in the process.”
Several people said Peterson’s handling of their questions was based in public relations rather than actually addressing concerns. At least two people asked for promises of being a good neighbor to be included as part of the conditional use permit the city would require for the shelter to operate in the building.
Peterson said she was taking notes on people’s concerns and had already worked with several requests, but she wasn’t sure if those things could be put into permits.
Before the meeting, the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association solicited donations from people “in order to obtain legal representation, hire other professional advisers, and cover associated administrative and communications expenses,” according to a Feb. 7 Facebook post.
“On behalf of our residents, the VPNA board has committed to oppose the proposed Interfaith Sanctuary expansion and relocation to our neighborhood” once applications are submitted, a letter dated Feb. 3 read.
Several people said in their comments that they planned to donate to the cause.
Summarizing his feelings succinctly, one resident said that Peterson was not welcome in his community. “Why is she still pushing?” he asked.
“Every community has a responsibility to take care of their own,” Peterson responded, adding that her team was “not asking for any crazy considerations or anything.”
“We’re asking to beautify a building and move in a very programmed shelter into a neighborhood,” she continued. “We’re pushing because it’s the right thing to do.”
Wednesday’s meeting was the first step in Interfaith’s submission of a planning application to the city of Boise. The next step is to submit the application. A Planning and Zoning Commission hearing would follow. That would likely not be until April, one of the developers on the project said.
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 11:19 PM.
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