Louisville Blogs

The big news on the city's efforts to create a homeless task force charged with creating some guidelines for regulating the shelters isn't who's among the two dozen on the list, it's who's not. The Metro Planning Commission, charged with organizing the group by the Metro Council, seems ill-equipped to come up with sensible guidelines, based on its efforts in putting together the task force. It's primarily a hodgepodge of government officials, business interests and a few homeless shelter officials. Ready to name the force a few weeks ago, the Planning Commission abruptly said it needed more time after there were objections to the presence of some members -- namely three -- homeless activist John Gilderbloom, attorney Stephen Porter (involved in legal proceedings involving Wayside Christian Mission) and Chuck Burke, who represents the Original Highlands Neighborhood Association (which is involved in a legal battle to prevent Wayside from obtaining the Mercy Academy property) Full Disclosure: Burke is the CTO here at Mojo. Dawn Warrick, assistant director of the city's Dept. of Codes & Regs, sent a letter to Burke explaining why he was left off the task force. It said "Due to concerns raised about conflict of interest, we have decided not to include you and others who are involve in legal actions regarding the location of homeless shelters." She goes on to ask Burke to participate in the public comment portion of the proceedings. But her explanation doesn't explain the exclusion of John Gilderbloom, an outspoken homeless advocate who has studied the issue in more than a hundred U.S. markets. After learning he'd been left off the force, Gilderbloom said this. "BOZA specifically asked me to be involved because I've done the research on the homeless," he said. "I'm upset." Burke also expressed some outrage. "I am disappointed because I feel I have a unique and now informed take on many of the issues facing shelters, neighborhoods and co-existence." Warrick was unavailable for comment. The bottom line here is that the two dozen members of the commission will have a hard time agreeing on any regulatory ideas, and if they do, it will take an extremely long time. Meanwhile, the one organization hanging in the balance, Wayside, has until August before it must move its operations from East Market Street. Wayside is also not represented on the task force. Here's a list of who is: * Dolores Delahanty, formerly with Metro Housing Coalition * Deb Delor, Louisville Downtown Management District * Ken Herndon, Louisville Downtown Management District * Sue Ernst, Planning Commission * Jack Francis, Neighborhoods Coalition * Anna Wooldridge, Neighborhoods Coalition * Marlene Gordon, Coalition for the Homeless * Cathy Hinko, Metro Housing Coalition * Debby Levine, citizen * Victoria Markell, League of Women Voters * Virginia Peck, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development * Maria Price, St. John Center for Homeless Men * George Unseld, Metro Council * Leah Stewart, Board of Zoning Adjustment * Stephanie Warren, Kindred Health Care * Regina Warren, Metro Housing & Family Services/Urban Government Center * Lee Weyland, CITY Properties Group * Ed Wnorowski, St. Vincent de Paul Society * Jon Baker, Jefferson County attorney's office * Theresa Senninger, Jefferson County attorney's office * Dustin Wallen, Jefferson County Attorney's office * Rebecca Fleischaker, Metro Economic Development Department * Chris Brown, Planning & Design Services * Chris Cestaro, Planning & Design Services * Chris French, Planning & Design Services * Dawn Warrick, Planning & Design Services

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chuck   fri dec 04 2009 at 3:15 pm         ·  I am disappointed at being left off of the committee, but I sent a letter to Dawn and others just to make a few points clear: 1) One afternoon's research showed me that a clear precedent in U.S. zoning rules has been established for shelters and transitional housing facilities - they are almost universally allowed into "C" / commercial zones and are treated typically as hotels/motels of similar bed-count. Beyond a small bed-count, they are not allowed in residential zones / neighborhoods, and many cities go so far as to create rules regarding "buffer zones" between mega-shelters and residential areas. Buffer zones simply acknowledge the impacts that very large shelters and/or hotels have on low density residential neighborhoods. 2) The Hotel Louisville property is ideal for Wayside in so far as it is zoned commercially and for a hotel/motel 3) The Mercy location remains absolutely inappropriate for any large shelter or transitional housing facility (or a 300+ bed Marriott, for that matter) The question in my mind is whether or not clear precedent will end up mattering, as I do believe Wayside has the powers-that-be in a precarious position. The city will not allow Wayside to stay at Hotel Louisville, they've made that clear. But will they allow a residential neighborhood to be horse-traded to make that happen? We'll see what happens. Best, - C

Mixed Mojo   mon dec 07 2009 at 12:33 pm         ·  Poor farm somewhere south of the Waterson on Dixie Highway maybe?