Al Oertwig, president of the Payne-Phalen District 5 Council, is the latest public figure to express concern about a proposed relocation of the Dorothy Day homeless shelter to a site near the virtual entrance to the East Side.
Catholic Charities, together with a task force assembled by the city of St. Paul, has proposed relocating the overcrowded overnight shelter from 7th Street, by the Xcel Energy Center, to a new, larger, multi-level building on Lafayette Road, not far from the St. Paul Police Department, the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center and the Union Gospel Mission.
The proposal would add a 470-person emergency shelter and housing facility to the area, a prospect that has raised eyebrows and questions with some concerned elected officials such as state Rep. Tim Mahoney, DFL-Minn., and Ramsey County Board Chair Rafael Ortega.
Oertwig, who lives near the Union Gospel Mission in the Railroad Island neighborhood not far from Lafayette and University Avenue, said the area is already overloaded with services for the desperately poor, not to mention the jail and law enforcement center. The Union Gospel Mission, which provides beds for more than 100 homeless, represented a kind of tipping point, he said.
Since its arrival, he’s seen an in-patient mental health crisis center open along University Avenue, and a methadone clinic open near the police department, among other services. That’s too many homeless and desperate people concentrated in one small area, which isn’t fair to them or to the neighbors, Oertwig said.
“I do think there’s a need for homeless programs. I do recognize what Hennepin County did (with the Catholic Charities’ Higher Ground facility in Minneapolis), and that may be a model we may want to look at. I know that the city people think they’re being innovative and forward-thinking, and that’s good, but placement is an issue we may want to do think about. Number one, what is best for the impacted homeless people? Number two, what is best for the impacted neighborhood?”
“I don’t want to be negative about Union Gospel Mission either,” Oertwig said. “They do good work. They run a good facility.”
Members of the district council met with representatives of the mayor’s office last week, a day or two before the Dorothy Day expansion and relocation plans were announced to the public. The neighborhood folks suggested moving the proposal to Highland Park.
Said Oertwig, “We suggested in our little meeting (with the city) what about the Ford plant? There’s space there. ‘Not going to happen’ was the immediate reaction, ‘because Highland would rise up and protest.’ And yet they have much more capacity. They have many more stable, well-off folks who could supply the support structure for people who are struggling.”
Oertwig said the East Side in general is home to clusters of social service programs, low-income housing and transitional homes, and that’s not healthy for homeowners or clients of those programs.
“I think we’re getting into impacts on the neighborhood, and to the people who are homeless, that are not positive,” he said. “That’s really what it comes down to. One of the biggest issues we have in terms of urban issues is the concentration of people who are poor in certain neighborhoods. … Dispersal is a much better way of looking at this.”
He continued, “They used to have (the very poor) in tall buildings … and then they started doing scattered site. For example, South Chicago. They had big high rises on the south side of Chicago … that’s not the practice anymore. Concentrating people in one site is not healthy. We should find a neighborhood that is strong and thriving, not one that is already inundated with poverty issues.”
That said, some see the likelihood that homeless residents will board a bus to Highland Park or Mac-Groveland looking for emergency services as slim. Downtown areas traditionally attract more homeless people than residential districts and small business districts. The reasons range from proximity to hospitals, shelters and social services to the opportunity to panhandle or find a quiet place to rest the night without being moved along by authorities.
Advocates for the proposed emergency shelter say the Dorothy Day Center is desperately overcrowded, serving upwards of 200 people overnight in a building that was never intended for overnight use. The proposal would create a ground-level shelter with single-occupancy rooms and efficiency apartments above it, next to a new job training and social services building.