Brightwood residents speak out against proposed homeless shelter site

NEW PHILADELPHIA ‒ More than 30 residents of the Brightwood area attended Monday's New Philadelphia City Council meeting to express their opposition to a proposal to build a homeless shelter at the intersection of Brightwood Road SE and Reiser Avenue SE, the location of the former Twilight Drive-In.

"We're concerned about property values, we're certainly concerned about safety issues. Some of the lots are wooded and large, and it's very easy for people to get in there and cause problems for us," said Gary Crowthers, who has lived in the community for 50 years.

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Friends of the Homeless of Tuscarawas County wants to build a shelter with 15 to 20 beds for women, 15 to 20 beds for men and six family units. The new shelter would replace the current one at 211 E. High Ave., which is in deteriorating condition. The project is estimated to cost at least $3 million.

Four previous proposed sites have been rejected by city officials.

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Resident Jennifer Townsend said she had several issues with the proposal, including safety.

"We have 28 acres of cornfields and woods that line the back of most of our houses there," she said. "There's no alleyways, there's no areas to patrol and New Philadelphia wouldn't even be patrolling it for us. That would fall on the Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office because that is out of New Philadelphia jurisdiction. So we would have no patrol going through our neighborhoods to monitor things."

She added, "I have a little girl, and I'm terrified of the human trafficking and the drug trafficking that that might bring."

Safety concerns for pedestrians in the area

Crowthers said he thought it didn't make sense to build a shelter so far from the services the homeless need. He said it would be better to build it closer to downtown New Philadelphia. He added that there are no sidewalks leading from the site to the center of town and a nearby bridge over U.S. Route 250 is not safe to use by pedestrians.

Ed Lee, another resident, noted that the site is at the entrance to the city's industrial park.

"I think it would be better used for an entryway into that industrial park than to really put a homeless shelter there," he said. "I think downtown, where's it located now, makes a lot more economical sense. As far as transportation, it's a lot easier for people to walk downtown where their needs are."

Corey Moner, administrator of Schoenbrunn Healthcare, which is across Reiser Avenue from the site, told council members of his concerns.

"People don't want to bring their loved one across town sometimes because of the distance," he said. "I'm not sure what they're going to think about our business if we have a homeless shelter nearby and what their thoughts might be. Hopefully, maybe it's not going to be as bad as what some people might think, but at the same time it's a pretty big gamble when you're talking about people's loved ones and the responsibility we have to care for them."

Support for the proposal

Ashley Casteel spoke in favor of the shelter, saying she was not worried by it being built so close to Brightwood.

"This idea of vilifying the homeless and saying that they are going to be causing all of these issues in the area and just going to be left to their own devices at the shelter just seems kind of absurd to me," she said. "I would just ask that people think about the homeless not as a blight but as an opportunity to improve the community and draw more people in."

Present at the meeting was the Rev. Joe Svancara, president of the board of the Friends of the Homeless. Asked by one of the Brightwood residents if he were in favor of the site, he responded, "It is not ideal, but unfortunately the zoning codes make it very difficult to build anywhere else."

The city's Board of Zoning Appeals has the final say on whether the shelter can be built at the proposed location. Its next meeting is May 9.

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Brightwood residents opposed homeless shelter site