Check out this comment on the News and Observer article:
"The trouble at my downtown business all began when the police station moved out and the homeless shelter moved in. Downtown looks like hell. It is dirty and unkept. How about a program that pays some of these homeless to clean up the area they call "home"?
Good luck to the neighborhood this place is moving into. I actually have more homeless people using my property for a toilet or a bed than I did before the homeless shelter opened. Why? b/c they can get a meal, beg money, then go get drunk or high. They are then turned away from the shelter and end up crashing on the nearest "cozy" property.
Chapel Hill has put out the welcome mat to homeless and they are come in droves."
Issues:
Comments
Such worries are unfounded
The new Community House will not be a "walk up" shelter. It will be a transitional housing facility. Meals will not be served to non-residents... the Community Kitchen, now in the downtown facility, will not move to the new location. Men using the emergency cots on bad-weather nights will be screened at an off-site location and transported to and from the facility.As the N&O article states, the IFC will implement a "Good Neighbor Plan" with nearby residents. I encourage residents who want the Community House to be a good neighbor, and who truly want to be a good neighbor to the Community House, to participate in that process.