‘You have no humanity’: Heated hearing on Boise homeless shelter ends with deferred vote
Minutes before the Boise Planning and Zoning Commission launched into an hours-long hearing for a new homeless shelter on State Street, a hot mic caught two city officials on the YouTube livestream contemplating whether a vote would take place Monday night or a decision would be deferred.
As it turns out, their concerns were warranted.
The commission once again deferred a final vote on a permit for the proposed new Interfaith Sanctuary shelter location, with a vote now not expected until the commission meets on Jan. 3. It’s the third time the commission has decided to defer a vote on the shelter because of meetings running late into the night.
Commissioners said they expected to talk for several hours and wanted to ensure there was enough time for discussion.
“I’d like to deliberate this for quite a while,” Commissioner Jennifer Mohr said. “There’s a lot here … and it’s a huge record.”
The deferral came after some of the most heated debate seen so far in public hearings for the new shelter. And as the commission prepares for its fourth meeting on the Interfaith question, some were left wondering whether the nearly 15 hours of public presentations were less helpful than intended.
The discussion surrounded a proposed 205-bed homeless shelter for Interfaith Sanctuary located at the former Salvation Army store on State Street. The proposal has generated consistent controversy among neighborhood advocates since Interfaith announced the purchase in April.
Sixty-two people provided public comment on Monday, bringing the overall total to nearly 150 speakers over the course of the past two meetings, a vast majority of whom opposed the shelter, with that opposition spearheaded by the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association. In the first meeting, Interfaith Sanctuary and neighborhood opponents had each made their own presentations.
Many of the comments covered several areas brought forth previously by those opposed to the shelter, including public safety and impacts on local businesses, despite pleas from the commission to not repeat arguments.
“I’ve been on the commission for almost five years now, and I’ve never seen this robust a participation,” Commission Chair Meredith Stead said.
Notable names in Boise politics came forward to speak. Recent City Council candidate Katie Fite said she opposed the project because of “due process violations” she alleged were committed by Interfaith.
One resident read aloud a letter from Sen. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, that was sent to the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association. Burgoyne argued that efforts by the city to curb homelessness often came into conflict with the needs of neighborhoods and local residents.
“The (Interfaith) project points [to] the city’s failure to bring these and other pieces of the puzzle together,” the letter said.
After public comment, Geoffrey Wardle, an attorney representing Interfaith during its application process, gave an impassioned rebuttal to the neighborhood association’s claims, including that a shelter was better suited to an industrial area versus a residential zone.
“I will not for a second ever accept the notion that the homeless should be shunted to industrial areas,” Wardle said. “You have no humanity if that is your position.”
His argument then took a personal tone when he said he grew up in the Veterans Park neighborhood but was happy he left, because he was “shocked and appalled” by arguments made by neighborhood leaders.
Speaking by phone after the meeting, Wardle said he did not believe that the large number of arguments made by neighbors against the shelter furthered the conversation.
“I do this regularly — you know when (commissioners have) lost attention, and you know what arguments are compelling,” he said. “Unfortunately, most of what we heard tonight, I don’t think was terribly helpful.”
Katy Decker, president of the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association, said Tuesday that she was frustrated with Stead’s comments asking for new arguments and she disagreed with Wardle’s assessment of her presentations.
“This is about trying to acknowledge the impacts (of the shelter),” Decker said of the process.
She said she doesn’t know which way the commission will vote, but that she has higher hopes than before the hearings started.
The hours of testimony also led to a bottleneck of other proposals that the commission was unable to hear. Eight projects were deferred to a later date.
A representative for a proposed development of 46 apartment units at 2506 W. Targee St. said he needed the commission to approve his project by the end of the year, since that’s when he needed to purchase the building according to his business agreement.
“I can’t purchase this property by the end of the year if I don’t have this approval,” he said, visibly frustrated. “The project will not exist on Jan. 3.”
The commission voted to defer that item, along with the Interfaith shelter and other items, until it next meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 3, at City Hall.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This article has been corrected to show that Sen. Grant Burgoyne sent a letter to the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association, not the Planning and Zoning Commission.
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