News

Shelter gets preliminary approval

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Related articles this week: • Shelter seeks volunteers, donations • Editorial -- Give them shelter     Church, society have moral obligation to provide shelter     to all homeless Past articles: from November 9, 2007 issue: • Front-page photo: Shack-a-Thon at St. Norbert College • Homeless shelter opens     Diocese supports plans to open shelter at local church • Hunger, homelessness in spotlight     National Hunger, Homelessness Awareness Week     is Nov. 11-17 from October 26, 2007 issue: • On Nov. 1, where will Green Bay homeless go?     City plan for most marginalized may not happen,     but church hospitality center ready from September 28, 2007 issue: • Alternative to COTS homeless shelter in works     Green Bay's New Community Shelter in mix,     advises patience from August 31, 2007 issue: • Green Bay nixes winter shelter at church     COTS offered a place to sleep to people     who couldn't go to city's other shelters • Bridging the Gap by Bishop David Zubik --     A scraped knee and beyond     Emergency shelter in downtown     is all about caring for each other

GREEN BAY -- The overnight homeless shelter located at St. John the Evangelist Church and supported by the Green Bay Diocese received preliminary approval to open from the Green Bay City Council on Nov. 8.

Deacon Tim Reilly, diocesan director of administration, testified before the council in an emergency session called by Mayor Jim Schmitt. The council gave preliminary approval to a zoning variance for the shelter, which houses chronically homeless people who cannot use the city's other shelters. This includes the mentally ill and those who have drug and alcohol addictions. The council will again debate the issue at its next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 15. If they approve a zoning permit for the shelter to operate, which it has been doing since Nov. 6, the permit would expire on April 15.

The council added a few conditions before giving preliminary approval. These included hiring a security guard during the shelter's hours of operation, 6 p.m. to 9 a.m.

Deacon Reilly said the diocese immediately got references from groups such as the Packers and the Resch Center and has interviewed individuals from two security agencies. The hiring of a guard would occur after the city council's vote on Nov. 15.

While no other homeless shelter in Green Bay is required to have a security guard, Deacon Reilly said the diocese would not object to the special requirement.

"It's a controversial issue for many people and I understand and appreciate that," he said in an interview with The Compass Nov. 13. "We want to respond with a spirit of collaboration. If this is a condition, it should not get in the way of serving our homeless brothers and sisters."

Deacon Reilly said the St. John the Evangelist Shelter has served anywhere from nine to 13 people each night since it opened Nov. 6.

For the last two winters, the COTS (Churches Offering Temporary Shelter) shelter located at the St. John site sheltered as many as 25 people a night. This year, the city refused to issue a zoning permit, preferring to explore the option of a shelter near the New Community Shelter on the city's west side. However, on Oct. 23, the city council refused to approve a zoning change to allow that shelter to open. This is why the diocese, at the direction of Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, apostolic administrator, announced on Nov. 2, that it would support a shelter at St. John.

"We're not moving into a new diocesan ministry of operating a shelter as a diocesan staff," said Deacon Reilly, adding that to start any new ministry while the diocese has no bishop would violate canon law. "However, with the acute circumstance of having no shelter available for these particular brothers and sisters who are homeless, and with temperatures dropping, the diocese needed to do what it needed to do in terms of its day to day ministry when faced with a crisis such as this."

Until the city council issues a zoning variance, the St. John shelter is operating in violation of city ordinances. Technically, the city could issue fines of up to $600 for each day it operates. However, the mayor has said he does not wish to fine the parish, which believes it is operating within its constitutional rights.

"The Catholic Church by virtue of our faith and tradition," said Deacon Reilly, "has a moral imperative to care for the poor and the homeless. ... Because the temperatures are dropping in Brown County and because there is no safe haven for the chronically homeless at this time, the Catholic Church believes that it must act on behalf of the homeless."

The shelter is a ministry of St. John Parish and its pastor, Sacred Heart Fr. Guy Blair, with support and assistance from the Diocese of Green Bay. Since the shelter opened on Nov. 6, the following measures have been undertaken by the diocese:

• Forty volunteers were in place on Nov. 6. The diocesan human resources department has helped with screening, background checks of volunteers and employees, and with VIRTUS (safe environment) training;
  
  
• The diocesan finance department has taken on the accounting responsibilities previously handled by other agencies for the former COTS.
  
  
• Mary Marx, a full-time employee of St. Vincent de Paul, which already runs several shelters in the city, will be the shelter's executive director. She will manage intake, case workload, interactions with other agencies and set up the rules and regulations required to run a shelter.
  
  "We're very appreciative of the commitment that the St. Vincent de Paul Society has made to the homeless cause and for allowing us to tap into Mary's great gifts and resources and leadership capacity," said Deacon Reilly.
  
  
• A full-time employee has been hired to run the shelter on a daily basis.
  
  
• A board of trustees - consisting of parish members from St. John, diocesan staff, representatives from churches of other denominations, local social service agencies, and other interested individuals - has been set up and had their first meeting on Nov. 13. That board will establish the governance rules for the shelter, according to Deacon Reilly.
  
  
• Tom Froelich, a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Green Bay, who has previously served as a diocesan consultant on projects involving diocesan cemeteries, will be the liaison between Deacon Reilly's office and the shelter.
  
  

Until the city approves a zoning variance, facility upgrades - such as installing fire doors and strobe lights on the fire alarms, both of which are already purchased, and making a shower handicapped accessible - cannot proceed, since they require city building permits.

Additionally, Deacon Reilly met on Nov. 12 with about 30 people living in the Navarino neighborhood, which abuts the shelter's neighborhood location. He admitted that "there was some anger" expressed, but said it was no more than he expected.

"We weren't there to argue with people," he said. "We do not want to diminish, in any way, the fact that a homeless shelter operating in a neighborhood creates an environment for problems that would not exist if the shelter were somewhere else. That's a fact, but not a total obstacle to having a compatible relationship."

He said there were several encouraging results of that meeting:

• A willingness to share problems and concerns in a respectful way;
  
  
• A sharing of information about concerns from the previous years when the COTS shelter operated;
  
  
• Suggestions for improvement, including a request for more parking lot lighting, which Deacon Reilly said will be done.
  
  

"Archbishop (Timothy) Dolan has given us a mandate to provide shelter for these homeless, but we also, with that, take on the responsibility to make sure that what we do, we do right," said Deacon Reilly.