St. Cloud Planning Commission Delays Decision on Homeless Shelter Site

(KNSI) — The St. Cloud Planning Commission put off two key items at Wednesday’s meeting until next week, which could throw a wrench into plans for a new homeless shelter in the city.

Avivo wants to build a center on one acre of land near 1st Street South and 33rd Avenue South. Chief Executive Officer Kelly Matter says the organization needed an answer by this Friday on the location to keep things on track.

“Avivo was awarded, or offered a $6 million grant from the State of Minnesota to go towards the building of an Avivo Village shelter in the St. Cloud community. That money came with a contingency. We need to have a site and an address identified in order to get the $6 million.”

Avivo would lease municipal property for at least 20 years and then make improvements on the land. It would then be owned by the City of St. Cloud.

The shelter would hold up to 56 people at any time and is expected to serve 128 people throughout the course of a year. It will operate as a low-barrier facility with the goal of being a bridge as individuals transition from the streets to permanent lodging. The land use agreement was originally part of the consent agenda. It was pulled with three members voting to do so.

Councilmember Karen Larson is a member of the Planning Commission without voting status. She informed the commission that Avivo needed an answer by the end of this week. She made a motion to have the issue reconsidered. Even after further deliberation, the vote deadlocked 2-2. Voting against were Chair Marty Czech and Vice Chair Sheila DeVine.

Matter thinks the decision likely slows things down, but will not kill the project. “We want to be a part of the solution in St. Cloud. If the $6 million is off the table from the State of Minnesota, we would wait to a new funding round probably a year from now.”

The Avivo Village shelter is one of 17 different projects asking for Community Development Block Grant funds. St. Cloud estimates it has $520,000 to allocate overall.

Avivo was one of the larger applications asking for just over $196,000. It says that will help with the soft costs of designing and constructing the facility.

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