Staff and board members of Brighter Days Housing will meet with residents and businesses near the facility to address complaints about loitering, discarded drug paraphernalia and car break-ins in the eastern Columbus neighborhood.
Community town hall meetings will be at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Thursday at the America and Roby Anderson Community Center, 421 McClure Road, said Chris Rutan, who leads the Ninth Street Park Neighborhood Watch, which organized the sessions.
A petition with about 200 signatures is expected to be presented to Brighter Days officials seeking to have the facility moved out of the neighborhood, where it has been serving the homeless since it opened two years ago at 421 S. Mapleton St. in a renovated firetruck maintenance facility owned by Columbus Township.
In 2015, Columbus Township Trustee Ben Jackson and Love Chapel Director Elizabeth Kestler approached Columbus zoning officials for approval to locate an emergency housing shelter for single adults in the building, with an estimated cost of $300,000 to renovate the building and provide needed furnishings. The project was eventually completed for about $100,000 in materials and labor, with the remaining cost covered by donations from contractors, engineers, city workers, businesses and community residents who volunteered their time and money to the project.
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The facility has a capacity to house 20 men and 16 women in each of the gender-separated dorm areas, and this month is averaging about 15 men and six or seven women each night, Jackson said.
Jackson said was Brighter Days was very busy the first winter it was open, but use slacked off by summer. A year later, the winter of 2017 saw a larger number of clients again using the facility, and that trend continued this past summer, he said.
“We don’t know why,” Jackson said.
Neighbor complaints
During its two years of operation, complaints about loitering, crime and littering have been registered, although it is unclear whether the complaints have been made anecdotally or in reports filed with the Columbus Police Department.
Talk of unhappy residents and businesses ramped up this summer after business owners alleged that the facility’s clients were climbing over fences into private property to break into vehicles.
The business owners say they are also upset about allegations that Brighter Days clients have been camping out on Love Chapel property when the Brighter Days facility is closed during the day.
Marilyn Kelley, who owns Kelley’s Auto Interiors near Brighter Days, said the petition with the complaints started several months ago because of ongoing concerns about property crime and loitering.
“What the petition says is we want arrangements made for these people. You can’t turn them out and not have anywhere for them to go or anything for them to do,” Kelley said of the Brighter Days clients.
Brighter Days operates with a check-in time of 6 to 9 p.m. each night, and clients leave the facility between 9 and 9:30 a.m. the next morning each day.
Kelley said the clients lay around the facility after leaving in the mornings, creating an environment that makes customers uncomfortable when approaching their store.
The auto interiors business also has a Penske Truck Rental operation and Kelley contends that the Brighter Days clients have climbed over their fence to try to look through vehicles.
Clients hanging out
The neighborhood businesses are particularly concerned about a picnic table area near Love Chapel where Kelley contends Brighter Days clients hang out during the day, putting up hammocks and laying blankets on the ground in view of the neighborhood businesses. Residents have also seen individuals sleeping in nearby Pence Park and have complained about drug paraphernalia being left in the park and around the neighborhood, she said.
Jackson said he and Kestler have tried to immediately address any concerns that residents and businesses have, but said they have not been contacted directly by anyone representing the neighborhood or the businesses with a specific time, place and day when these incidents have happened.
Both said if any neighborhood resident or business owner or employee sees laws being broken in the neighborhood, they need to call police. They also requested that any complaints be given directly to them. Kestler and Jackson plan on providing their contact information to every person who attends the town halls.
If someone observes behavior they believe does not rise to breaking the law, but is something that is concerning, they need to contact me or Elizabeth directly, Jackson said.
“What they haven’t done is call me, or call Elizabeth, with details as to when, where and what is happening,” Jackson said.
Kestler said it is frustrating that the neighbors continue to complain, but not directly to the shelter officials.
“We’re working hard here to make sure this is a great facility,” Kestler said. “We have volunteers who come in here and walk a three- to four-block radius around the facility just to pick up trash every day — for a year,” she said. “We’ve tried to be proactive. We’ve asked the clients to walk down Cherry Street rather than Mapleton because the businesses wanted that.”
When Kestler learned that a covered area near the picnic tables was causing some of the clients to loiter there, she had it removed immediately, even though it was a high school senior project. That was because of concerns expressed by neighborhood residents, Jackson said.
Media observations
When a Republic reporting team visited the neighborhood Thursday morning, no Brighter Days clients were loitering near the facility, and the nearby Pence Park was empty.
No needles or drug paraphernalia were found in the park, or along the side streets near the businesses around Brighter Days. There was some trash visible along the streets, but it appeared to have escaped from household trash being dumped out of toters during trash collection. Most of the streets have no sidewalks, and there was some trash, including one retail store’s flyers blowing about in some yards.
There was some profane graffiti in the concrete and on the picnic tables in Pence Park, although the area was deserted.
The neighborhood where Brighter Days is located included industrial-type and auto-repair or auto-related businesses, most of them surrounded by wire or wood fencing. Cars are parked on grassy areas near homes, and are three and four deep in front of some of the auto-related businesses.
Drop-in center change
One of the reasons clients may have been more visible in the neighborhood over the summer is that the Recovery Engagement Center at 1951 McKinley Ave., used as a drop-in center for Brighter Days clients, reduced its operating hours, Jackson said.
Originally open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., hours were reduced this past summer to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., he said. In October, the hours will go back to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Brighter Days clients will be encouraged to use the facility to connect with community services during the day.
Brighter Days and the center, which is being renamed the Homeless Engagement Center, are about eight blocks apart, a walkable distance for those leaving Brighter Days, Jackson said.
Kestler said she has asked Columbus police to increase patrols in the area, and the department has done so, which has helped. She has also set up informational sessions with clients at Brighter Days, in mid-morning just after release time, to give clients instructions and reminders about being respectful to private property in the neighborhood.
So far this year, Brighter Days has provided 5,000 stays for 227 different individuals, Kestler said.
Some of those individuals have mental health and other issues that cause neighbors and business people to object to their presence, she said.
“We are working as hard as we can to get them into regular housing and into programming to stabilize them in the community,” Kestler said. “We have a great deal of compassion for those who stay here.”
Jackson said he will be handing out a clipboard seeking the names, addresses and email contacts for each person who attends the town hall meetings, with the intent of asking them to volunteer to help with the Brighter Days mission.
“We understand that much of this behavior is annoying, but it is rarely illegal,” he said of some of the neighbors’ complaints. “If you see a crime being committed, call 911.”
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What: Community Town Hall meetings about Brighter Days Housing
When: 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Thursday
Where: America and Roby Anderson Community Center, 421 McClure Road
For more information: 812-447-2121
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Address: 421 S. Mapleton St., Columbus
Purpose: An emergency housing facility for individuals 18 and older who are homeless in Bartholomew County.
Capacity: 36 individuals and three to four staff members housed in staff quarters and two bunk areas, separated by gender.
Check-in: 6 to 9 p.m. each night. Those who stay at Brighter Days will leave the facility between 9 and 9:30 a.m. daily. Guests will be served a continental breakfast in the morning but will be referred to meal sites in Columbus.
Amenities: The shelter has installed bike racks, and several bicycles have been donated by Healthy Communities and the Bike Co-op for guests to use.
Information: 812-344-4512
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For information about how to donate or provide assistance to Brighter Days Housing, contact Love Chapel at 812-372-9421.
For general information, visit Love Chapel’s website at columbuslovechapel.com
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