Neighbors unhappy with Brighter Days shelter
Residents and business owners in the area around the Brighter Days emergency housing shelter are angry. That was the consistent message during Thursday night’s town hall meeting at the Roby and America Anderson Community Center. The shelter, located in the 400 block of South Mapleton Street, moved in to the former maintenance facility owned by Columbus Township. Residents say that the shelter has brought increased crime, loitering and drug use to the area.
Jan Gross is a business owner representing residents and other business owners in the area. She says that the city’s east side has become a dumping ground for programs and buildings that other Columbus neighborhoods would never tolerate.
Gross presented a petition with 180 signatures asking that the shelter be moved.
Elizabeth Kestler, director of Love Chapel, says that the facility is needed. In previous years, she says that the homeless were put up in hotels or given a room at another building.
Ben Jackson, Columbus Township Trustee, says that part of the loitering problem is due to the fact that the Recovery Engagement Center, which is used to help the homeless get the resources they need, has cut back its hours over the summer.
The town hall was put on by the Ninth Street Park Neighborhood Watch. City Councilmen Dascal Bunch and Tom Dell were also in attendance. Bunch says he will be talking to Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde to set up another town hall so that residents and business owners will have an opportunity to share their concerns directly.