New site for homeless’ cold shelter in Covington meeting opposition, supporters feel sense of urgency

Cold shelter proposed site at Martin and Madison in Covington (Photo by Greg Paeth)

By Greg Paeth
NKyTribune Senior Reporter

For a brief period back in December, it looked like a new location had been found for the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky, which runs the cold shelter for the homeless near Seventh and Scott in downtown Covington.

John Carey, who chairs the emergency shelter board, made a presentation to the Kenton County Fiscal Court and revealed details about a plan to build a new facility at Martin and Madison.

Right now, plans to build on that site along Madison, Covington’s primary north-south corridor, are running into opposition.

The proposed location has drawn strong opposition from the Helentown Neighborhood Association, and the City of Covington isn’t convinced that this is the best location for the facility.

Covington Commissioners Chuck Eilerman and Jordan Huizenga both said they have been told that the plan isn’t popular at the Joseph U. Meyer Center for Workforce Development, the state career center office that was dedicated last November. It is located on the north side of Martin while the proposed shelter is just across the street.

Eilerman said a spokesman for the career center said that locating a homeless shelter nearby would not have a positive psychological impact on job seekers who visit the center. He said there also are concerns about people from the shelter hanging out at the career center, which provides access to computers for job seekers.

Jason Ashbrook, executive director of the career center, could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

City Manager Larry Klein and Carey both said they have talked a number of times about alternate sites for the current shelter, which has been acquired for the expansion of the “urban campus” for Gateway Community and Technical College. Gateway has said it probably won’t seek funding for a new building on the Scott Street property until at least 2018.

Klein declined to identify any of the alternate sites that may be considered.

Carey said he’s willing to look at other property, but he stressed that he’s working with a sense of urgency. “We want this to be our last winter in the current location,” Carey said. He said building a new shelter or renovating an existing building could be difficult to do before the 2015-16 winter season. The shelter opens every Nov. 1 for people who are trying to stay warm when temperatures get cold.

“We’re adamantly opposed to it. We feel like they’re trying to do this in the dark of night,” said Tom Wherry, who has been one of leaders in Helentown and said he called the meeting seven years ago to create the neighborhood group. “It’s a short-sighted plan and it does not really address the problems of the homeless in Covington.”

Wherry and Greg Barker, another active member of the neighborhood group, both said the shelter will discourage people from moving to Helentown and making investments. “How do you use a homeless shelter to promote a neighborhood? It’s not presenting an image of cleanliness and prosperity,” Barker said.

“It’s an injustice to the neighborhood and to the homeless people. It’s not right for us and it’s not right for them,” Barker said. The shelter’s policy requires people to leave by 9 in the morning, which means there’s no facility to help the homeless during the day, Barker said.

Carey said some preliminary plans have been drawn up for a 10,000-square-foot building that would be built on four-tenths of an acre immediately south of Martin, which deadends at Madison. The property is owned by Covington developer Bill Butler through his Champ Realty Investment Corp. Butler is best known as the head of Corporex, a real estate development firm that has put together projects throughout Northern Kentucky, in Cincinnati and elsewhere in the country.

Butler and Carey said plans call for the construction of a building that would have a commercial/retail front along Madison while two-thirds of the building would be devoted to the shelter. The property, appraised at $148,000 by the Kenton County Property Valuation Administrator, is directly across Madison from the HealthPoint Family Care medical facility. A vacant building on the site appears to have been a service station at some point.

The entrance to the shelter would be at the rear in an effort to avoid having a long line of homeless folks waiting along heavily traveled Madison Avenue for the shelter to open. On cold nights during the winter, homeless people stand in line along Scott Street waiting for the doors to open at 6 p.m. each evening.

Barker and Eilerman, who is in the commercial real estate business, were highly skeptical about whether any business would want to occupy a building whose primary tenant is a shelter for the homeless.

Carey said the shelter has not closed the deal on acquiring the property. One hurdle that would have to be cleared is a rezoning that would allow for a shelter. The property is now zoned for commercial use and would have to be zoned “public institution” to accommodate the shelter, Klein said.

Klein and City Commissioner Bill Wells attended the Helentown Neighborhood Association meeting earlier this month to discuss the shelter. “They’re (neighborhood residents) definitely sympathetic about the problems of the homeless, but they feel like they’ve made some big investments in the neighborhood,” Klein said. “Homelessness is a Northern Kentucky issue, not just a Covington issue,” said Klein, who added that there may be some suitable sites in nearby suburbs.

Carey said he has not yet met with the Helentown residents although he has met with members of the Eastside Neighborhood Association, whose neighborhood butts up against Helentown. He said he was under the impression that the shelter was in the Eastside neighborhood.

Wherry and Barker both said they were alarmed about the fact that the people who want to build the new shelter don’t know which neighborhood encompasses the site. Martin Street is one of the boundaries between the two neighborhoods and the south side of Martin is in Helentown.

Carey said he has met with some of the owners of businesses in the area to explain how the shelter operates and inform them about its simple mission: To keep people from freezing to death during the winter.

The shelter has raised about $1 million in its first capital campaign and is expected to receive $300,000 for the shelter from Kenton County through the sale of the shelter to Gateway. The shelter is holding its major fundraiser for the year at 7 p.m. Friday at Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills.

Eilerman said Covington may kick in another $100,000 toward the project.

The location of homeless shelters oftentimes kicks off not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) controversies. In mid-December the Florence City Council voted unanimously against a proposal to amend the zoning ordinance so that it would permit a shelter to open.

Mary Rose Mission, which provides meals for the indigent on Main Street in Florence, had wanted to open a shelter in a building on Dixie Highway, said Joshua Wice, the city’s director of business and community development.

Huizenga said he’s supportive of the work being done at the Covington shelter and supports the Mary Rose Mission work in Boone County. He said the Northern Kentucky Forum, which promotes civic engagement, is expected to discuss homelessness at an upcoming public forum.

Kenton County Judge-Executive Kris Knochelmann said the county has played a limited role in the relocation.

“Actually, our involvement has been support and passing on the proceeds from the sale of the old center to the cold shelter,” Knochelmann said in an e-mail. It is “…the board and city who will decide the details of the move.  My goal has always (been) simply to make sure a cold shelter exists to keep the homeless with a roof over their heads.  Simply put, since the cold shelter opened, there have been no freezing deaths in Covington and I think the community can be proud of that.”