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.

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