BOISE, Idaho — In February, Interfaith Sanctuary planned to submit an application to Boise Planning and Zoning for the shelter's potential move to the old Salvation Army building on State Street in Boise.
Executive Director Jodi Peterson-Stigers decided to postpone submitting the application and host one last neighborhood meeting instead.
“We thought let’s try this again, let’s open up the building, show people the drawing and answer the questions," she said. “What are the things that we can overcome together, help me understand so I can better communicate, bring ideas and concerns and let’s really talk about them and also let us share our concerns as well.”
This time the meeting was smaller and in person. On Saturday, March 13, Interfaith staff and board members hosted a walk-through in an attempt to clear the air about neighborhood concerns.
Peterson-Stigers planned to share floor plans and address concerns. However, she said the dialogue was one-sided and not what she had in mind.
“They wanted to let us know how they felt about this and it was a difficult conversation and I almost hesitate to call it a conversation it was really just an opportunity to express their anger and their views,” Peterson-Stigers said. “They are really working hard to smear us and not be truthful about who we are and what this project means.”
Peterson-Stigers added that before the meeting started, neighbors had tables set up and were handing out flyers with misinformation.
“They believe that this project is a mega-shelter, and a mega-shelter by definition is something that would be created in response to a natural disaster, where a stadium or something like that is taken over and they can serve 2-5,000 people,” she said. “They are accusing the project of being ware housing for homeless.”
Many neighbors belonging to the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association have concerns that they feel are not being addressed, in addition to the size of the shelter.
“It’s the spillover effect with people that either are turned away from the shelter or have nowhere to go during the day and are going to be loitering in the neighborhood and possibly you know affecting the other businesses and areas around the neighborhood,” said Matt Ciranni, the president of Veteran’s Park Neighborhood Association.
Ciranni said the tone at the meeting felt like the staff and members from Interfaith had already made a decision regardless of what concern neighbors had to voice.
“We really do care about the homeless community, we want to do the right thing for homeless people but the fact of the matter is, when you bring in 300 people to an area, many of which really do have substance abuse and mental health problems, there are going to be a negative impact,” Ciranni said. “Interfaith likes to portray our neighborhood as a bunch of heartless people who don't care about the homeless, and they are brushing aside our concerns.”
Interfaith will submit an application to Boise Planning and Zoning on March 27. If there is an appeal it will be settled by Boise City Council.
Construction is estimated to take nine to twelve months if the application is approved.
“We are going to testify the planning and zoning hearing with our concerns, that's really our best hope right now is that they will understand where we are coming from,” Ciranni said.
“At a certain point, you have to know that what we share or what we reveal, this group does not want this to happen and we still have to pursue what we believe is a very important project, in the right building in the city,” Peterson-Stigers said.