LANSING — A pivotal moment is in store for the Lansing area’s homeless population this week, with city leaders perhaps voting on a location for a community of pods that would provide both shelter and services.
Officials with the city’s Human Relations & Community Services Advisory Board and the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Board are scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27, at the Alfreda Schmidt Community Center, 5825 Wise Road, to consider proposed locations.
The city has narrowed potential locations to six, down from a list of about 60.
As part of the city’s housing initiative, named “NOVA” by city officials, city staffers envision a campus designed to address homelessness in the city with 50 housing pods, a resource center and community outdoor spaces.
The City Council voted in August to approve $645,500 for the 50 housing pods, which had been purchased to house people in the Kalamazoo area in an effort that fizzled. The actual cost ended up at $600,000, city spokesperson Scott Bean said.
Project delays already have pushed the project to at least September from the initial hope of March.
The meeting comes on the heels of a tense week among Lansing officials and housing advocates, who had pushed for Mayor Andy Schor to open the lobby of city hall as a temporary shelter from the below zero cold that gripped the region. Schor nixed the idea, saying security costs were too high and that area shelters and warming centers had plenty of capacity.
At the same time, the six-week stay at the Causeway Bay Hotel in South Lansing is almost up for about 55 residents of a camp the city was finally able to get vacated in late December after going to court last spring to evict people who were homeless and camping on private property on the city’s north side. That stay is set to expire around the end of this week.
Here’s more about the top six locations, ranked by points given during the city’s vetting process in categories that included location, infrastructure readiness, zoning and licensing, and parking.
1. Debbie Stabenow Park
Developing a former warming house and ice skating rink on 10 acres at 2516 S. Washington Ave. into a community of modular housing units would cost about $360,000 and make use of the existing warming house and concrete pad, according to an online document provided by the city’s Human Relations and Community Services Department.
Pod utilities are estimated to cost $225,000; additional showers to the existing bathroom, $75,000; fence repairs, $10,000; and warming house work, $50,000.
This site received the highest score of 95.
2. Ingham County parking lot
A parking lot at the Ingham County Human Services Building ranks second with 92 points and a $675,000 development cost.
The lot is close to critical services that could help those who are homeless find permanent housing and is notably not near parks and neighborhoods like the other five options being considered by officials.
Those locations have prompted concerns from residents.
Schor reached out to Ingham County Board of Commissioners Chairperson Ryan Sebolt about the parking lot location after the top five final sites had been selected and Sebolt was open to the possibility.
“It seems like this site makes the most sense,” Sebolt said in December. “There’s certainly a lot of efficiencies and bonuses to using this site.
“The city is stepping up quite a bit, but housing and homelessness … it’s a regional problem but the county recognizes that we have a role to play in it. We’ve been trying to be good partners. If the city says, ‘Your spot works the best,’ then we want to partner with them and make that spot work.”
3. Former El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy
Board members said the former school at 1028 W. Barnes Ave., south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard’s intersection with Moores River Drive, would cost about $500,000 to prepare for modular housing units.
Pod utilities are estimated to cost $225,000; pod foundations, $50,000; fencing, $50,000, and showers, laundry and community center operations, $175,000.
“Currently listed for sale at $650,000,” the online document said. “Owner is willing to negotiate purchase terms.”
Neighbors like Cutter Hume and his wife, Jamie Moriarty, have lived across the street from the school for three years.
“I’m just so worried that the city is going to put up these pods,” Moriarty said. “It’s not going to be a sustainable program. They realize the building is too much work to renovate. They abandon the project. Then we’re just left with half of a program sitting across the street.”
The school has a score of 91.
4. Comstock Park
An 8.3-acre parcel in the park northeast of the Oakland Avenue and MLK Jr. Boulevard intersection has an available structure in poor condition, requiring an expansion with updates.
The city’s online document doesn’t detail the structure but mentions a “building has water and electric may need updates.”
Prep costs are listed at $500,000, including $50,000 for parking, $75,000 for pod foundations, $225,000 for pod utilities and $150,000 for shower, laundry, and community center operations.
The park scored 81 points.
5. Hunter Park
A 13.8-acre site at Hunter Park, 1400 E. Kalamazoo St., received an overall score of 75.
Its prep costs mirror the Shabazz site – pod utilities, $225,000; pod foundations, $50,000; fencing, $50,000, and showers, laundry and community center operations, $175,000.
6. Reasoner Park
This site would involve a 6.8-acre lot at the 1801 N. Washington Ave. park, plus an acre on West North Street now owned by the Ingham County Land Bank.
This site had the lowest overall score of 65 and the highest prep cost of $800,000: $175,000 to regrade one-third of the site, $125,000 for curb cuts and parking, $75,000 for pod foundations, $250,000 for pod utilities, and $175,000 for shower, laundry, and community center.
Other sites
There are nearly 60 sites that have been suggested and vetted.
They include the former Reo and Maple Grove schools, Foster Park and Reutter Park, and parking lots owned by Lansing Community College, University of Michigan Health-Sparrow, Ingham Regional Medical Center and the state.
Contact editor Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing may decide location for pod community for homeless on Tuesday
Reporting by Susan Vela, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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