Homeless Shelter backs out of Ferndale church site

Royal Oak -- A Royal Oak homeless shelter's controversial plan to relocate to a Ferndale neighborhood has been put on hold.
The South Oakland Shelter, along a commercial strip in downtown Royal Oak, caused an uproar last year with plans to move into a wing of the First Baptist Church of Ferndale.
Some Ferndale residents stormed City Hall over the issue and others sued in a failed bid to block the project. Plans called for the shelter to move its administrative offices into the church and serve clients during the day. At night, clients sleep at one of 67 congregations that host and feed them for a week.
Ryan Hertz, the shelter's new executive director, said Tuesday his organization is seeking a new location, double the size of the Ferndale site, to accommodate more clients than the 30 per day Ferndale was going to allow.
Changes in the real estate market also prompted shelter officials to pursue buying a property rather than leasing, he said.
"We serve 30 to 35 clients at a time that are in need of shelter services. We serve 150 clients with prevention assistance to avoid eviction and another 50 with re-housing assistance who are previous shelter clients," Hertz said.
Shelter officials are considering locations in southeast Oakland County, but Hertz declined to disclose details. He said he expects to close the Royal Oak office by the end of the year.
Ferndale residents Patti and Jeffrey Ashmore sued the city in 2009 after the City Council approved a special land-use permit to allow the shelter to set up its offices in a wing of the church.
The American Civil Liberties Union also filed a brief urging Oakland Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris not to block the project, saying that denying the church permission to help poor people would violate the Religious Land Use Act of 2002.
In December, Morris denied the residents' claim, saying the city's Zoning Board had properly reached its decision.
Calls to the church were not returned.
Ferndale Mayor Craig Covey said there has been no work on the building in the past year, except for replacement of some broken exterior windows.
"It appears they have had a change of heart," Covey said of the shelter.
Hertz said his organization is in the process of returning the church wing, where renovations were already under way, to its previous state.
Repairs began this summer but have stalled as the church and the shelter work out what needs to be done, Hertz said.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100...le-church-site

SOS, with their poor judgement and leadership [[Kevin Roach, who has since resigned) has angered an entire community, bankrupted a church, and spent countless dollars meant for helping people on legal battles trying to stick their shelter in what is basically a residential neighborhood, and now wants to walk away scott-free. I once thought this organization was great, but I wouldn't give them a dollar at this point.

Do you want po-folks, schizoblacks, mutants, yahoos and DEAD [[C)KRAK HEADS in a vibrant, homosexualesque, commercial strip of Downtown Ferndale? Most citizens will say NO!

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Sometimes the rich and poor don't mix anywhere.

Neda, I miss you so.

Sorry to hear that from you, JL.

I've spent some time with Ryan and his gang up in Pontiac, but had NO idea about this raw deal in Ferndale.


I consider him one of the best people I've ever known, and remain hopeful that his team can turn this around to good.


I will stay on the side of supporting them, in order that they may make right what you describe. How do you suggest they undo whatever their previous leader mucked up? Is it possible, in your estimation?!


Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gannon

Sorry to hear that from you, JL.

I've spent some time with Ryan and his gang up in Pontiac, but had NO idea about this raw deal in Ferndale.


I consider him one of the best people I've ever known, and remain hopeful that his team can turn this around to good.


I will stay on the side of supporting them, in order that they may make right what you describe. How do you suggest they undo whatever their previous leader mucked up? Is it possible, in your estimation?!


Cheers

---

A couple of things. The first is making retribution in full to the church, which was already near insolvency, which is why they wanted a tenant in that wing. The church spent quite a bit of money on that wing for SOS, and lost a lot of good will from the community during this battle, then SOS just walks away. As the article points out, their claim of helping to return the wing to its original state has absolutely no evidence to support it. Nothing has happened.

Second, I have no issue with Ryan. I do not know Ryan, he came in after all of this went down. It was the poor leadership of Kevin Roach that caused this mess. Then, after all this went down and he finally won the ability to put the shelter in the church, he decides he'd rather work in Troy. You know, to help all those homeless Troy people. If you have any further interest, I have more info that I can pass on via PM only.

It's really too bad this happened the way it did. Yep, there still are very hard feelings around these parts about the whole thing; the local oppositional politcos are still bringing this up from time to time. Personally, I thought it was a good idea to have it there, but I don't live right in that neighborhood and I completely understand and support the residents of that neighborhood to have a major say regarding something like this going into their area.

There was some work done to the interior of the place, albeit not en masse like what was promised. SOS, to me at least, seems to be a well-intended and necessary service; however, I feel that full compensation to the church, along with a public and written apology to the church, to the residents and to the whole community of Ferndale is the least SOS could do.

JL,

Thanks. I have no doubt that Ryan will want to make right, in order to maintain a positive karma momentum. I will do what I can to help, as I see this organization doing positive things.

I'm not sure I need any more specifics at this time, but thanks for the offer.

Thanks for your input, too, Baseline.


Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Danny

Do you want po-folks, schizoblacks, mutants, yahoos and DEAD [[C)KRAK HEADS in a vibrant, homosexualesque, commercial strip of Downtown Ferndale? Most citizens will say NO!

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Sometimes the rich and poor don't mix anywhere.

Neda, I miss you so.

---

Take your homophobic crap somewhere else Danny. The church in question is not in the central business district, so I have no idea what you are blathering on about.

Neda, I never knew you and frankly I am more concerned with people HERE who are dying or in need. Sorry about what supposedly happened to you, but some of us on this forum have gone off the deep end about one person's alleged death.

Now, thanks to JL, we know the rest of the story! :)

Thanks.