A Door County community voted down a proposal Wednesday night to let a church in the Town of Union operate a homeless shelter for families.
Union town board members were asked whether to grant Southern Door Community Church a conditional-use permit for it to serve as a temporary shelter. The board's decision came after resident after resident spoke against a shelter in their community.
Last October, the church pastor, Reverend Paul Peterson, approached the town board to seek approval for a shelter in partnership with Green Bay's Freedom House.
The proposal would convert about half of the church's sanctuary space into private rooms, where up to five families at a time could live while applying for jobs. They would be able to stay at the shelter for up to 90 days.
"As much as it's a great thing to help others, there's a lot of outlets for us to do that currently. I don't think our town is the right place for it," Jenny Jandin said.
"You know these people are usually linked to the small crimes and things. Do we really want to have that around here?" Cory Cornette asked.
"What do we do with the folks that fall through the cracks?" Reverend Peterson argued. "We do nothing? Well, here's a church that says we can do something, and it costs you nothing."
But the opposition far outweighed the support.
"There was nothing ever presented to any of us where he's going to get the money and all this. I mean, sure, they say donations and all this, but there was nothing in black and white," Beatrice Jeanquart said.
And the town board decided to deny the permit.
"It's not unexpected. It's sad, but you take a deep breath and figure out what's next," Peterson said.
The town chair told us he denied the permit based on input he had gotten from members of the community over concerns of a decrease in property value and safety concerns.
Earlier, Peterson told us concerns about safety were not an issue of security but of misinformation.
Peterson said it would "probably be the safest place in Union township because all of the staff will have to go through those background checks. Anyone who volunteers will go through them. We have kids in here. We have to be absolutely certain that there's no one here that could cause any harm to them. So the issue of security is just something that's non-existent."
The reverend said he does not plan to appeal the board's ruling.
Source: http://www.wbay.com/story/21291320/2013/02/20/town-of-union-debates-family-homeless-shelter
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