WPCNR THE HOMELESS NEWS. By John Bailey. November 19, 2007 Updated 5:53 PM: Reverend Carter Via of the Presbyterian Church of White Plains announced today three White Plains churches located around the central city core have firmly committed to offer their facilities for a warming shelter for individual homeless persons. Reverend Via said Grace Community Church would staff the shelter and provide security, and also be responsible for the transportation of homeless seeking overnight shelter over the winter nights. The plan depends on Common Council approval for a Special Permit to run the shelter legally. The forecast for this evening is a cold and damp 35 degrees.
Reverend Via reports he will take the proposal and the locations to the Mayor of White Plains as soon as possible, hopefully at the Tuesday afternoon meeting of the Common Council. A special permit needs to be granted to all three churches committed to hosting the facility, Via said, by the city, or perhaps a Special Permit interchangeable among the three, since each location would host the shelter for two weeks at a time, according to the present plans.
The shelter will offer only 19 beds (cots). Via speculated that Grace Community Church may transport the overflow seeking shelter to Yonkers or another location. Asked by WPCNR if the other two churches could not house overflow clients, Via agreed of the sense of that but that logistics would have to be worked out, whether all three churches would be “on call” nightly or not. The churches, he said at this time would host the shelter for two-week periods, with the site rotating to another church, then the third church, and then going back to the first church.
Homeless would gather at a central collection point in the downtown, Via, again speculated, since the sites are on the periphery of the city with only one church walkable from the downtown.
Reverend Via said the shelter was limited to 19 cots because of state laws calling for state oversite of shelters housing more than 19 cots.
The Reverend said one church had approved the shelter Saturday, and he heard positively from the other two locations in the last 48 hours.
Reverend Via said as soon as the White Plains city government approved the plan which now is definite on locations and how the clients would be handled, he said that funding for the program would come from County Executive Andrew Spano, who in meetings between Rabbit Lester Bronstein and Mr. Spano, had said he was willing to fund a warming shelter in White Plains as long as the city approved of the location (in White Plains).
Reverend Via was seeking to set up a meeting with the Mayor, and the Common Council, he hoped for Tuesday evening. The Council meets on the Capital Projects Budget tomorrow afternoon, followed by a Special Meeting at 6. The agenda has just been released to the media, and the shelter proposal is not on it at this hour.
Since the 85 Court Street Drop-In Shelter was closed by Westchester County August 5, the homeless single persons who refused to join the Department of Social Services program and observe its rules, have been spending their nights in wooded locations around the city exposed to the elements.
