FORT SMITH -- City directors unanimously approved a rezoning for Next Step Homeless Services to build a shelter at 815 S. Sixth St.
Sharon Chapman, Next Step executive director, has said at prior directors meetings the proposed shelter would provide non-congregate housing with 30 houses maximum on the property. The people using the services would likely be drug and alcohol free and addressing mental and physical health issues before finding employment and becoming independent, she said.
"People would be able to come there and apply for that housing program to stay there up to six months in order to get themselves healthy and well and working and out of homelessness," Chapman said at the directors meeting Tuesday . "That's our goal there. So there would be no walking traffic or any emergency shelter there."
Chapman said the shelter will take over a year and a half to complete.
Ward 3 Director Lavon Morton asked the zoning map be amended to require Next Step to close the day room location once the new shelter is completed.
Chapman said the Next Step board had already discussed closing the day room, and are okay with adding that to the zoning requirements if necessary.
"We feel that just from a practicality standpoint, we don't have the staff to run both facilities. We would not be able to afford to run both of those locations, and we are committed to transitioning to strictly housing," Chapman explained. "We've made that decision as a board, and we are ready to move forward with that."
Ward 2 Director Andre Good asked Chapman to clarify what she means by no walk-in traffic when Next Step also plans to have classes at the proposed facility.
"About half of what we do at Next Step is our housing program, and we have about 50 individuals who live in group homes or single family homes that we own that we provide services and life skills things for them," Chapman said. "This new location would give us a larger facility where we can have them come in in the evening or during the day for certain classes that we might hold. Nutrition classes, cooking classes, things that would help them move on out of homelessness. So we would open that facility for those individuals who are living in our housing program already."
At a study session April 14, two community members spoke in favor of Next Step moving to Sixth Street, including a neighboring property owner who spoke against the move to the U Street property.
About three neighboring business owners spoke at that meeting against Next Step moving and said they're already having problems with homeless people who live in encampments near their properties. A fourth individual spoke Tuesday against the rezoning as well.
Chapman argued at both the meeting and the study session that the shelter would be alleviating the number of people living in the encampments present near those property owners. She said the shelter would be fenced with one entrance to the facility, in addition to cameras, lighting and 24/7 staffing.
"The businesses that have concerns about the homeless in the area and this future location in my opinion really shouldn't be too concerned with the increase in what they're seeing now, because obviously we're talking about two different groups of folks that are on different levels of homelessness," Good said at the meeting.
Next Step runs a day room at 123 N. Sixth St. downtown. The shelter originally requested to rezone 1400 S. U St. from commercial heavy to a planned zoning district to place the shelter there but withdrew the request after hearing concerns from the community regarding potentially decreasing property value and additional homeless people traveling to the area to use Next Step's services.
The new location is near the Oklahoma border, which is surrounded by several industrial businesses and would put Next Step closer to another local homeless service, Hope Campus.