St. Cloud City Council discusses Lincoln Center, responsibilities on homelessness

The St. Cloud City Council on Monday discussed continuing concerns about the Lincoln Center and the city’s responsibilities to address them.

While the shelter, operated by nonprofit Homeless Helping Homeless, is currently reduced to nine people residing on the property in order to meet the original conditional use permit and is moving toward other facility changes, the council discussed continuing concerns with management of the center and impacts on surrounding businesses and residents.

Several community members previously suggested in April the shelter reduce its number of occupants and increase the number of staff, then at a ratio of 19 residents to one staff member, rather than allowing an increase that was proposed at the time. Others had expressed concerns with the shelter's size at the time and suggested an expansion not happen until certain compliance issues were resolved.

The St. Cloud Zoning Board of Appeals approved a conditional use permit amendment in May to increase overnight occupancy at the center from 19 residents to 25, with a ratio of two residents per staff person. Homeless Helping Homeless Executive Director Harry Fleegel told the St. Cloud Times in June he planned to appeal that ratio requirement, that the condition was “extremely burdensome.” The appeal was later withdrawn.

More:Lincoln Center occupancy increase with staffing requirements approved

That withdrawal doesn’t mean there aren’t still some problems in the neighborhood, City Councilmember George Hontos said, such as loss of sales and increased security costs for businesses and concerns around safety and crime.

“I mean, you're just scrambling to try to make a living as it is with your business. And to have all these disruptions and all this interruptions and all this chaos and employees don't even want to work there anymore because they're afraid. I haven't heard what you're going to do different to make those businesses feel more comfortable in that neighborhood,” Hontos said to Mayor Dave Kleis at Monday’s meeting.

The city has public safety and infrastructure as its functions, but social services is a county function in his opinion, Kleis said.

“When it comes to social services, that is a county function in my opinion, that is a county function," Kleis said. "I know there are cities that take over that function. Clearly. It may be Duluth, Minneapolis, Rochester, there are cities that have that function. I just believe if you go into that role, that I believe is a county function, then you are taking resources away from your core function of public safety."

St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson attended the meeting to address confusion on trespassing. Hontos said people are discouraged about calling police on trespassers because there is doubt officers will respond. Anderson disagreed with the amount of reluctance to call because the police department has answered around 550 calls on or near the shelter in the time it has been open. Community members can ask trespassers to leave and, if they don’t feel comfortable doing so, they can call the police department, he said.

“Somehow that has morphed into, we are abdicating our responsibility to trespass people and placing it on the folks who are being aggrieved. And that simply is not true and I want to be very clear about that,” Anderson said.

More:Homeless Helping Homeless awarded $100,000 grant to remodel The Lincoln Center

The Lincoln Center is filling a niche for residents who might otherwise be turned away from other facilities in the area, said Councilmember Dave Masters.

“It isn't a lack of what the police have done. It isn't the lack of what the administration’s done. It's not the lack of what planning and zoning has done. It's the management of that facility. So I understand they deal with a population that's the hardest to serve. But that's not an excuse for inappropriate behavior, for criminal activity and for destruction of property,” said Councilmember Jeff Goerger.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: City Council discusses Lincoln Center, responsibilities on homelessness