I just heard from Rachel Laing, spokesperson for Mayor Jerry Sanders, that the site for the 2009/10 winter homeless shelter will be the same as last year: an East Village lot located at the corner of 15th and J streets.
As I reported back in July, the site’s owner, OliverMcMillan, was hesitant to make it available for a second year—this despite the city spending $140,000 to prepare the site for last year’s shelter. At one point, an OliverMcMillan site manager told city officials that time-sensitive stimulus money barred the site from being used again (that ended up not being the case).
Laing said Amy Benjamin, the city’s director of housing and homeless services, met with Dene Oliver and he agreed to make the site available. If he’d said no, the second option was a warehouse at 13th and F streets.
Laing said the shelter will be open by Thanksgiving.
And I say kudos to Oliver.
October 27, 2009 - 9:52 pm at 9:52 pm
Great job Kelly.
Thank you OliverMcMillan.