Fortunately, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this past weekend provided excellent training for the hours of sitting on the couch in front of the TV that watching Monday night’s Town Council meeting required. The public hearing began for whether to approve a special use permit for the IFC shelter. And for all IFC director Chris […]

Tonight Town Council begins the IFC shelter special use permit process, which council members Sally Greene and Donna Bell promise will be rigorous and thorough. One of the contentious issues that may come up is the fact that the siting of the shelter precludes housing any registered sex offenders, even on white flag nights. Some […]

Mark Peters of ABetterSite.org writes: Town Council will discuss homeless shelter regulations again tonight after last month’s requests for additional information. Planning department staff has provided detailed information from the American Planning Association to address Council questions, and staff has also addressed the timing conflict the proposed shelter guidelines present if passed the week prior […]

The current iteration of Community House on Rosemary Street is a homeless shelter. It provides some of the services of a rehabilitation center, but the primary purpose is the provision of meals and a safe place to sleep. It does offer some counseling and medical services, but the limited space in that facility restricts the […]

An article in Sunday’s News & Observer mentioned that the Triangle doesn’t have enough shelter beds to accommodate all the registered sex offenders who are homeless. Once the IFC men’s shelter moves to Homestead Road, Chapel Hill washes it hands of the problem. The proposed shelter site is too close to a preschool and public […]

Mark Peters of abettersite.org writes: Tonight the Chapel Hill Town Council will discuss shelter guidelines. The staff recommends that they “receive the report.” The guidelines have not been to any of the other advisory boards for their input. One year ago, the Town Council removed a 25-bed limit in the ordinance on shelter size. Many […]

As I looked over the Planning Board Shelter Committee’s summary of recommended guidelines for where to put prospective shelters for the homeless, I had a rare moment of insight: Why not move the shelter for the homeless to University Mall instead of the library? Keep the library where it is and put the shelter in […]

With last night’s Town Council meeting cancelled due to adverse weather, my mind had time to wander and ponder other options for the location of the Community House, the proposed shelter for homeless men that the town would like to site on Homestead Road, where it would be clustered with other social service facilities. The […]

The discussion at the Town Council business meeting last Monday night about the proposed homeless shelter revealed a plot twist worthy of a John Grisham novel. After many months of public comments from those who live closest to the proposed site airing their fears about the undesirable element that a shelter would draw, a couple […]