BOISE, Idaho —
Interfaith Sanctuary (IFS) is asking the City Council to overturn the Boise Planning and Zoning Commission's denial of a conditional use permit application to use the former Salvation Army building on West State Street as a shelter.
Testimony began Monday, April 18, and continued Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Monday evening is the final day of scheduled hears and the Boise City Council is expected to reach a decision by the end of the night. All hearings were live-streamed on KTVB.COM and the KTVB YouTube channel.
Last week, the city council heard testimonies from members of Interfaith Sanctuary, including the IFS executive director, Jodi Peterson-Stigers.
“We have kept our homeless community safe, supported, and moving forward with housing and recovery,” Peterson-Stigers said. “We cannot go backward and lose the solutions that were created to lift up care and services for our neighbors without homes.”
Some of the testimony against the appeal centered around what potential shelter neighbors said was a lack of a security and safety plan from IFS and concerns that IFS would not be able to adequately address potential impacts, including drug use, crime, public safety resources, and safety for pedestrians and cyclists, including those staying at the shelter.
"The State Street corridor is too dangerous for the most vulnerable population we have," Shane Harris said.
Several also said a large congregate shelter, with the potential to host about 200 people, would not only be wrong for homes and businesses in the neighborhood, but it would also be wrong for people experiencing homelessness, too.
"Even Interfaith Sanctuary has agreed that the benefits of non-congregate shelter have better outcomes. However, IFS stubbornly plunges ahead with an inflexible plan for congregate shelter, and without a safety plan for the nearby residents, neighborhoods and businesses," said Deborah Frank.
Bea Black, CEO of WCA and who served on the Shelter Better Task Force, said that the proposed shelter would be an asset for her clients.
“For WCA clients, I hope that we see the shelter approved, as it will provide expanded temporary housing options for those who find themselves homeless due to domestic abuse and violence,” Black said. “With the wait lists that we have, it would be wonderful if someone trying to leave an abusive home knew there was a place that they could go in the proposed shelter. There are 96 beds that are going to be allocated for families and they are envisioned to be in a separate wing.”
Boise City Council also heard from city officials, including Boise Police and Fire Chiefs, both of which answered questions regarding how IFS's proposed location would impact the city's first response resources and unit availability.
“There is a difference between a security plan for the facility and a police response safety plan,” said Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee. “I think when we’re talking about what is our plan to respond to a significant incident, part of that is, what does the security plan of the facility look like to minimize the demand for police services. Things such as on-site security, deescalating training for staff, and a variety of other things, will help them mitigate the need to call the police. Our response plan would likely meet much of the same protocol for responding to any densely housed population for a critical event.”
Boise Fire Chief Mark Niemeyer was asked what the fire department's 'Plan B' would be if the city council upheld Planning and Zoning's denial of the conditional use permit.
“Let’s be blunt, our Plan B is still to respond to people’s needs when they call us,” Cheif Niemeyer said. “I think our biggest challenge, and there are some solutions out there that are coming, are what we call public service responses. It’s the welfare checks, it’s the lift assists, it’s non-critical emergencies. For us, for years we have not had resources at our fingertips that we could direct people to, and I think we now have an abundance of resources available to contact to get those individuals the resources they need outside of the 911 system.”
Tonight's hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
In-person attendance is limited. Verbal testimony will only be permitted from parties of record -- those who have already submitted written or verbal testimony to the Planning and Zoning Commission -- starting with those attending the meeting in-person, followed by those participating remotely.
People who qualify to testify during the hearings will have to check in first.
Those planning to testify in person will need to check in at the first-floor lobby of Boise City Hall and receive a wristband. People will not be able to testify in person if they do not have a wristband.
For virtual testimony, people will need to check in on Zoom and wait to be called on when the session moves to virtual testimony.
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist:
