CRESTVIEW — Ann Sprague, president of the Crestview Area Shelter for the Homeless' board of directors, is surprised, but undeterred.
A proposed homeless shelter location — next to the Okaloosa Health Department office on U.S. Highway 90 — raised the Crestview City Council's concerns. The site is across the highway from the Northwest Florida State College Robert L.F. Sikes Education Center, which borders Twin Hills Park.
While council members agreed a homeless shelter is needed in Crestview, some just don’t want it near the city’s flagship park.
“Because of the general proximity of that community park, would that be a place where we’d see them (the homeless) more?” then-Councilwoman Robyn Helt said on Monday.
“I have issues of our kids,” Council President Shannon Hayes said. “You know the type of individuals who are in these type shelters. The kids are right across the street.”
“That's my main concern, and I think it’s the citizens’ concern,” Hayes said. “We don’t want it. Not across the street from the park.”
The reaction was unexpected, Sprague said.
“I had no idea it was going to be such a complex situation,” she said after the meeting.
Joe Barley, a C.A.S.H. volunteer who presented the proposal, said, “This would be good for homeless people. It’s right next to the health department. We could send people next door for a medical examination or dental help.”
Barley and Sprague said homeless people prefer to be left alone and are not apt to wander into the park and interact with residents, including children.
“We have very, very few problems with them, and most of the homeless are willing and want to work,” but impediments — such as inaccessibility to the Internet and difficulty obtaining IDs — make getting a job more difficult, she said.
A “generous,” anonymous gift has recently made constructing a shelter feasible, Sprague said. “Nothing’s in concrete,” she said. “We just know we need some type of permanent facility. We need it now.”
Barley, one of the founders of the Caring and Sharing food bank and a HOPE Network soup kitchen volunteer, said the area homeless problem won't be relieved without short-term housing.
Helt agreed that the homeless problem is “a significant issue we have in our city."
"That is certainly a social need that needs to be met within our community, and it’s a spiritual need, a calling that we have to help the needy and the poor and the widows and orphans,” she said.
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WANT TO HELP?
Residents wishing to volunteer or contribute money toward Crestview Area Shelter for the Homeless may call its board of directors president, Anne Sprague, at 826-1770.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Proposed Crestview homeless shelter location raises concerns