Opposition stalls plans for new South Bend homeless center amid public safety concerns

SOUTH BEND — Thomas Zmyslo, who in 1988 founded Tom's Car Care Center on the city's far northwest side near the Indiana Toll Road, said the quiet part out loud Thursday. He was speaking in opposition to a homeless shelter that hoped to move in just south of his business.

"My heart bleeds for the people when I see what goes on with their situations," he said of people who are homeless. "But, you know — nobody wants it in their backyard."

South Bend officials and homelessness advocates know from past experience that whatever site they propose for a permanent shelter will cause backlash among neighbors. The phenomenon even has its own acronym: NIMBY, or Not In My Backyard.

But advocates were still deflated Thursday after the South Bend Redevelopment Commission voted to postpone its purchase of a lot north of a school bus depot on Bendix Drive, where Our Lady of the Road eventually hopes to build and operate a new 80-bed low-barrier shelter called the New Day Intake Center.

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The unanimous vote to put off the decision until later followed more than a dozen people who, speaking during public comment, criticized the speed of the transaction and worried about the shelter's effect on the surrounding neighborhood.

"After you invest all of your life in building a business," said Zmyslo, whose son now owns the car center, "can you withstand something like this coming near you?”

South Bend's plans to support a low-barrier homeless shelter

The plan gained attention earlier this week after the South Bend Community School Corp. Board voted on Monday to sell a five-acre parcel of land to the city of South Bend for $277,750. The school corporation parks its buses in a lot that borders the mostly vacant field to the south.

After rezoning the land with the support of the South Bend Common Council, the city plans to transfer ownership of the parcel to a nonprofit formed to run the New Day Intake Center. The shelter would be run through Our Lady of the Road, the Catholic ministry that has run the existing low-barrier shelter, Motels4Now, since August 2020.

As part of the agreement, the city would build an 8-foot-high fence along the southern boundary and leave a 25-foot buffer between the bus facility and the future shelter. City officials would require the center to operate 24/7 on-site security.

"We believe that this site is a good fit for this use," said Caleb Bauer, executive director of the Department of Community Investment. "It's located on a bus line. It's in decent proximity to grocery stores."

More: Notre Dame grad Sheila McCarthy's journey to leading Motels4Now

The site is about two miles due north of Motels4Now's current 120-bed shelter at the former Knights Inn Motel on Lincoln Way West. Its housing-first model differs from traditional homeless shelters by providing guests with a temporary home without requiring them to be sober or meet income requirements.

Clinicians from Beacon Health System and Oaklawn mental health clinic visit the site to do physical check-ups and to offer mental health and addiction services. Guests are asked to leave if they're repeatedly violent or disruptive. Staffers have easy access to NARCAN nasal spray to reverse possible opioid overdoses. All the while, Motels4Now's housing counselors are around to help people find their next home.

South Bend leaders endorse this approach to treating chronic homelessness. Housing-first models have gained traction nationwide in recent years as evidence shows that when people have somewhere to sleep and securely store their belongings, they're better able to deal with underlying issues and save money for permanent housing.

Sheila McCarthy, director of Motels4Now, said the center has served more than 700 guests since the shelter opened in August 2020. About 78% of those people have found success, McCarthy said, meaning they're still at the motel or they've moved willingly. More than 200 have moved on to permanent housing, and three in four of those people remain housed.

"If you're opposed to homelessness," McCarthy said, "we are eradicating homelessness."

Opposition to new site for homeless shelter

Multiple neighboring business owners joined a handful of St. Joseph County elected officials Thursday to lament the crime, vagrancy and panhandling they associate with Motels4Now. County commissioners Derek Dieter and Carl Baxmeyer asked to delay the vote, as did St. Joseph County Council members Amy Drake and Joe Thomas.

Most agreed that the work of homeless service providers is important. But they noted a children's day care a half-mile down the road and a Catholic elementary school nearby. They noted Boland Park is across the road, wedged between residential neighborhoods and two large apartment complexes.

Mike Garatoni, the owner of Growing Kids Childcare Center on Bendix Drive, said he cares for more than 200 children about a 10-minute walk away from the proposed site. He asked to delay the vote Thursday until more of his concerns are addressed.

"It's one thing to care for your own children," Garatoni said. "It's a different responsibility for the care and safety of other people's children."

Many also worried how the presence of a homeless shelter would hamper local businesses, especially after the closure of Walmart last year left a hole on the far northwest side.

Eli Wax, a redevelopment commission member who led opposition to the plan, said he believes the center would fail to meet the standards for a redevelopment project outlined in Indiana law. He cited a statute that says projects should benefit the public's "health, safety, morals and welfare"; increase the economic well-being of the community; and serve to protect and increase property values.

"At this point, I haven't seen enough to say that this will accomplish all three," Wax said. "It could be that it will provide a public health service, but I can't say it will increase the economic well-being of the (area) and protect and increase property values."

Next steps for the homeless shelter

Plans to build a low-barrier shelter go back to 2017, when a mayoral committee on chronic homelessness recommended the housing-first approach.

Two years later, a plan to build a low-barrier shelter on a vacant lot near Ivy Tech Community College fizzled.

County leaders discontinued funding for Motels4Now early last year because of many of the same criticisms voiced this time around. But the city paid $1.5 million of American Rescue Plan money to keep it open and to help with planning for the new center.

Our Lady of the Road owns the old motel now, but the site isn't large enough to fulfill the city's vision, Bauer said. And if an intake facility were to be built there, it would require years of temporary housing for up to 120 guests during construction.

Bauer said it's not clear whether the city will bring up the matter at the redevelopment commission's next meeting on Feb. 8. An event is scheduled Friday to announce updates, according to a city spokeswoman.

Along with $5 million in grants from Indiana's Department of Mental Health and Addictions, the city's contribution means the New Day Intake Center is about halfway to its roughly $14 million startup cost, according to Jon Schommer, executive director of Our Lady of the Road.

But where that money will be spent has been a volatile question.

Zmyslo, the car center's founder, noted that the proposed shelter has "been kicked around from one end of town to the other."

"Where is a good place for it?" he asked in earnest. "God only knows."

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend plans for permanent homeless shelter are delayed