The Manitowoc Warming Shelter is being allowed to have a temporary location, but without some of its requests being met.
The Manitowoc Plan Commission on Tuesday (September 9th) approved a Conditional Use Permit request for the operation of the warming shelter at the offices of Lakeshore CAP on State Street.
However, they were not allowed to have enough beds for 16 individuals, as they had requested, which is an increase from the 12 that they had at the previous shelter.
Warming Shelter Executive Director and Pastor Matt Sauer says more needs to be done.
Sauer expounded, “To pretend that limiting the days of shelter to 76, or the number of people sheltered to 12, will somehow just ease our social burden, is not only unrealistic, it’s unjust.”
Board Member Ken Walters explained why the warming shelter wanted 16 beds.
“The median was 15.5,” he explained. “What was the mode? What was the most frequent number of guests that we needed to turn away? What happened the most often, 15. Hence our request for 16.”
The council’s issuance of the CUP only allowed 12 beds, even after a motion was made to amend what the Manitowoc Warming Shelter wanted.
There is also a 76-day limit on how long the temporary shelter can stay open, which some people wanted to extend to as long as the temporary shelter is needed.
While the city’s Plan Commission meeting was packed with a crowd of people, most of whom spoke in favor of the new temporary shelter, one resident raised some concerns.
Resident Gary Bateman was one of them.
“Somebody had got to speak up for these kids that are running around,” he illustrated, “As well as the people who live around there. A lot of old people. We don’t want to see something happen, and what have you. There’s not very much of a police presence around that area.”
The warming shelter was originally located inside the First Presbyterian Church on 8th Street, but safety concerns are prompting the shelter to relocate.
This is not the same thing as the permanent warming shelter idea that The Neighborhood, which runs the Manitowoc Warming Shelter, has proposed.
Mayor Justin Nickels said during the meeting that a CUP for that is in the city’s hands, but isn’t ready for approval yet.
After the meeting, the warming shelter representatives said, although some conditions weren’t approved, “Our immediate goal was clear: to ensure that, in eight weeks, we can open the Warming Shelter again this winter. That goal was achieved — even if it came with concessions.”
