City
Late Fizz: McGinn Shifts $1.8 Million Away from Homeless Encampment
The $1.8 million that Mayor Mike McGinn and some City Council members had initially earmarked for a permanent homeless encampment in Lake City at the former Fire Station 39 is being shifted to separate projects, PubliCola has learned and McGinn's spokesman Aaron Pickus has confirmed for us this afternoon.
The $1.8 million in city money comes from an insurance settlement after a fire at the former Sunny Jim's peanut butter factory site; the land at the site was owned by the city. The mayor had first wanted to look at putting a semipermanent homeless encampment at the Sunny Jim's site, but then decided to propose a permanent encampment in Lake City at the old fire station. Both plans were controversial with neighbors in the respective neighborhoods.
Pickus says the money is going, instead, to repair six roofs on city-owned projects, including at the Central Area Motivation Program, the Central Area Senior Center, the Northwest Senior Center, the Southeast Health Clinic, the South Park Community Service Center, and the Teen Mother Center.
Pickus says the homeless encampment is "in development" and "not ready to be funded yet" and that "other projects are ready and fired up to go now."
Pickus says: "The six roofs identified today are in critical need of replacement in order to maintain operations and so the mayor is proposing replacing those roofs now."
Asked if the council was on board with the shift, Pickus says: "If the city council wants to do something different that's their prerogative. This is exactly what the budget process is for."
We have a call in to Council President Richard Conlin who was reportedly ready to move on legislation funding the homeless encampment next week.
Josh Feit contributed reporting to this post.
The $1.8 million in city money comes from an insurance settlement after a fire at the former Sunny Jim's peanut butter factory site; the land at the site was owned by the city. The mayor had first wanted to look at putting a semipermanent homeless encampment at the Sunny Jim's site, but then decided to propose a permanent encampment in Lake City at the old fire station. Both plans were controversial with neighbors in the respective neighborhoods.
Pickus says the money is going, instead, to repair six roofs on city-owned projects, including at the Central Area Motivation Program, the Central Area Senior Center, the Northwest Senior Center, the Southeast Health Clinic, the South Park Community Service Center, and the Teen Mother Center.
Pickus says the homeless encampment is "in development" and "not ready to be funded yet" and that "other projects are ready and fired up to go now."
Pickus says: "The six roofs identified today are in critical need of replacement in order to maintain operations and so the mayor is proposing replacing those roofs now."
Asked if the council was on board with the shift, Pickus says: "If the city council wants to do something different that's their prerogative. This is exactly what the budget process is for."
We have a call in to Council President Richard Conlin who was reportedly ready to move on legislation funding the homeless encampment next week.
Josh Feit contributed reporting to this post.
