(KNSI)—At Monday’s meeting, the St. Cloud City Council kept in place length-of-stay restrictions even though multiple shelters spoke out against them.
The group went with the planning commission’s recommendation of a maximum of 120 days, with 10% of residents allowed to remain for another two months when necessary. Place of Hope’s Carol Smith explained that the change would be a net positive, but she hoped for more.
“I would like to have seen no restriction, because if we’re running a shelter and we’re doing it, then 90% of the time, we really know what we’re doing. We bring the professionals in, they help us with what’s going on, so we don’t need a lot of those external restrictions.”
City staff briefed the council on the policy, which ensures that shelters can serve the most people possible while being a stepping stone to a permanent solution.
There was a second public hearing on homelessness. The Lincoln Center made the case for expanding the number of people allowed to stay overnight at the facility in freezing weather. Executive Director Harry Fleegel talked about Jason, a regular who he was forced to turn away. Jason is mentally challenged and curled up outside to ride out the night. He had both his feet amputated from frostbite after being caught out in the cold.
Smith says her facility had something similar happen in the past, which is devastating. “We’ve had the same thing. We had a gentleman lose both of his legs, and it was just dreadful because he slept under the bridge and froze his legs off. All the shelters know the seriousness of working together.”
Place of Hope is joining with Lincoln Center and the Salvation Army to provide shuttles that would ensure when one facility is above capacity, it can quickly transfer residents to another that has space.
The council sided with the Zoning Board of Appeals in rejecting the Lincoln Center request. The staff-to-resident ratio was relaxed from 1:2 to 1:6.
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