Live blog: Ability Housing Springfield meeting

[sheclown]

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/mostpopular/story/Springfield-residents-discuss-homeless-housing/y_QpMxqL6k2B5nzqmo2beQ.cspx

and

Springfield Residents Oppose New Homeless Apartment Complex

By Kevin Meerschaert

Springfield residents showed up in force to a meeting Thursday night to discuss a new housing development for the homeless proposed for the neighborhood.

An overflow crowd packs into the Springfield Women's Club to hear about a proposal from Ability Housing to house homeless veterans in Springfield.
Credit Kevin Meerschaert / WJCT

Many residents are strongly opposed having Ability Housing of North Florida convert an old apartment building in their neighborhood into residences for the homeless. More than 100 residents packed into the Springfield Woman's Club building to share their feelings with the agency and city officials.

Ability Housing is purchasing the 12 unit Cottage Avenue apartments through a grant and plans to renovate the parcel and the building. The plan is to house homeless veterans in the complex.

Ability Housing Executive Director Shannon Nazworth said the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs  is going to provide wraparound services along with help from other non-profit organizations.   
     
"When we work with the VA to do our screenings, everything will be done with the consideration that there is no on-site staff," she said. "We will do the best we can to screen appropriately with regards to those facts."

"In addition, the case workers will be coming to visit the residents on a regular basis. Our property manager will visit at least once a week. The maintenance man will visit at least once a week and one of our staff will visit at least once a week," she said.       

But many in the Springfield neighborhood said they are already doing their part to help the less fortunate. They pointed to about 50 special use facilities already in Springfield, from halfway houses to shelters.

The apartment building being proposed as housing for homeless veterans is at 319 Cottage Ave. in Springfield.
Credit Kevin Meerschaert / WJCT

Springfield resident and Downtown Investment Authority board member Jack Meeks said the concentration of such facilities can harm a neighborhood.

"Our city laws and zoning recognize that, and in addition to that, as I said, the DIA plan is also going to recognize that," he said "So I think hopefully that ultimately the service providers will get on the right side of history and understand that they can't provide their services in areas that in effect disable or further challenge those areas."   

Meeks said he's considering legal action claiming the Ability Housing complex would not just be an apartment house but is new special needs facility. Such new facilities are not permitted under current land use rules in Springfield.

Ability Housing said they would only be landlords of a renovated multi-housing unit which already exists.

http://news.wjct.org/post/springfield-residents-oppose-new-homeless-apartment-complex

[sheclown]

Springfield residents protest homeless veterans center planned for neighborhood
Friday, April 4, 10:16 AM EDT

By David Chapman, Staff Writer
The meeting was billed as a dialogue between Springfield residents and Ability Housing of Northeast Florida officials. A series of questions and answers about a 12-unit apartment complex in the historic neighborhood to assist homeless veterans.

But there was anger. Calls of purposeful deception. An "enough is enough" attitude.

Close to 200 people showed Thursday evening to the town hall-style meeting to talk, vent and lash out about the nonprofit's plans to bring a 12-unit apartment complex on Cottage Avenue to serve homeless veterans.

Ability was notified it would receive $7.3 million from the state in mid-March for the Springfield project and one other.

Ability Housing would serve as the landlord and use the Veterans Administration and other providers to select the chronically homeless who would live in the complex. Springfield veterans would have priority and if no veterans qualified, others who are homeless or at-risk could be picked.

Area residents had myriad concerns, tinged with anger: Why weren't they notified sooner? Will there be on-site supervision? Are mental health and drug treatment mandatory? Why Springfield?

Shannon Nazworth, Ability Housing executive director, and members of her staff were on hand to take the heat.

She apologized to the crowd several times for not contacting neighborhood leadership sooner. She did so after the grant was awarded in the past couple of weeks, not when the nonprofit applied for the state funding late last year.

As for on-site supervision and mandatory treatment, there will neither. Ability Housing would connect tenants with the area service agencies to provide help on a voluntary basis. Nazworth said national best practices show that voluntary, not mandatory, treatment work best when helping those at-risk and rehabilitating.

Having full-time, on-site staff isn't financially feasible because the project is smaller than others the nonprofit oversees, she

said.

The group has 255 units throughout Jacksonville, including the 83-unit Mayfair Village on the Southside for low-income families and the homeless; a 52-unit apartment community called Renaissance Village in the Longbranch neighborhood for the homeless and those at-risk and the 60-unit Oakland Terrace complex on the Eastside for rental assistance.

Springfield has a concentration of treatment and group homes, enough that a zoning overlay change was approved by City Council more than a decade ago to prevent any additional "special uses."

But, with no on-site supervision nor requirements for treatment, the Ability Housing project is considered multifamily, not special use.

Jack Meeks, a resident and member of the Downtown Investment Authority, told the crowd the project is a special use and he has hired a lawyer to make the city enforce its rules.

He said he had no problem with the nonprofit's mission, but didn't want it in Springfield.

"Take it someplace else," Meeks said.

He said he and his wife, JoAnn Tredennick, would continue to pursue the matter to the full extent of the law, which received a standing ovation from many in the room.

Calvin Burney, city planning director, told the crowd he had not seen the application for the project, but from what he has heard it would be deemed multifamily, though any changes during the process could alter it.

Throughout the two hour-plus dialogue, others voiced similar sentiments as Meeks.

Despite the outcry, Nazworth afterward said she will continue to communicate to dispel any misconceptions with residents on the issue. She said the trust will come with time.

"It's going to take time for them to see what we have done," she said. "It's my firm belief that once we are up and running ... it will be just like a regular apartment building and they'll realize it's a benefit to the community."

dchapman@baileypub.com

@writerchapman

(904) 356-2466

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=542631

[Debbie Thompson]

Whether or not you agree with Jack, "take it someplace else" is nowhere near the gist of what he said.  I knew that would be the sound bite.  Typical sensationalism on Chapman's part, and several other news stories.  They took the few words they knew could be sensationalized and edited out all the rest of what I felt to be a reasonable point.

Jack made the point that our very caring and compassionate one square mile neighborhood is already home to many more facilities than the typical Jacksonville neighborhood, which averages one per square mile.  And that the purpose of the overlay was to limit such facilities in the future because it wasn't fair to the residents that Springfield had so many compared to every other neighborhood in Jacksonville.

You may not agree with the neighbors who made that point, but I don't think that makes our residents heartless to say other neighborhoods than ours could step up to the plate and accept some of these facilities. There are buses, hospitals and grocery stores in other areas of town.  I don't know the number in our neighborhood.  Maybe its 20.  Maybe it really is 50.  But when Mandarin, Riverside, Southside, the Beaches, Avondale, etc. have maybe, say 10 or so, then I'll allow the residents of those neighborhoods to start lecturing us about how heartless Springfield is. 

Until then, come on over to Springfield and learn what a caring and compassionate neighborhood we really are.

[Debbie Thompson]

Don't be silly, Stephen.  Hospitals and fire stations, let's see.  Riverside/Avondale = St. Vincents.  Mandarin = Baptist South.  Southside = Memorial and St. Vincents in Southpoint.  Beaches = Baptist Beaches.  Northside = new hospital being built.  I'm sure they all have fire stations too.  I know most of them have bus service.

That said, we'll agree to disagree, Stephen.  Since the point has been made a couple of times without success so far.  Done with this one about only Springfield having the necessary services.  That's quite simply not true.

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

Perhaps it's time to stop redlining our historic urban core neighborhoods as segregated districts of crazy, homeless ghettos.

Springfield should not be bullied into taking in more of the crazy, sex addicted and possibly dishonorably discharged veterans and drug addicts because Mandarin and the beaches refuse to take them.

[edjax]

^^i think Stephens point is the facilities that will be relied upon for these tenants is already in existence so it makes sense that a facility of this nature would go closer to needed infrastructure.  This is rehabbing an existing structure. Not sure many existing structures of this nature exist in Mandarin not to mention none within easy transport of infrastructure they most likely require.  But go ahead make it a me vs them issue again. 

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

^^i think Stephens point is the facilities that will be relied upon for these tenants is already in existence so it makes sense that a facility of this nature would go closer to needed infrastructure.  This is rehabbing an existing structure. Not sure many existing structures of this nature exist in Mandarin not to mention none within easy transport of infrastructure they most likely require.  But go ahead make it a me vs them issue again.

Give them a bus pass.

Jacksonville is a suburban town so let the suburbs share in the responsibility.

Matter of fact, take some of the Davis land and build a crazy homeless transitional ghetto out near the Duval/St Johns County line and bus the homeless people to the hospital.


That won't happen because the Davis family and people out there have the mayor and governors' personal cell phone numbers.

Much easier to bully working people in our urban core who historically were powerless to stop our overlords from dumping society's ills out way. Out of sight bags out of mind of suburbia.


Glad to see that working people in our urban core are standing up for themselves.

[edjax]

And with our great mass transist system that bus ride would be 3 hours each way. 

[Debbie Thompson]

Dagnabbit.  I said I was done talking about this.  I hope to keep my promise to myself after this.

edjax, existing structure is fully rented, not a vacant unused structure.  Where will those tenants, also low income, go?  Ability Housing plans to non-renew their leases. To their credit, they plan to help them find other places.  But to my knowledge, there aren't 12 more "affordable housing" studios in Springfield. 

So apparently it's OK with you to displace existing low income tenants, in walking distance to the same facilities they need too, and perhaps have to relocate them to another neighborhood NOT within walking distance of facilities, to accommodate a different population of people also in need of affordable housing?

Why is it OK with you to kick them out of their homes?  Why are the existing tenants of this apartment building less deserving in your opinion?

[JayBird]

I have no idea the total number of facilities in Springfield, but it is high. Then I'm also not sure of how the numbers are quantified. Is it providers? Is it locations? At Prisoners of Christ, we have three properties in Springfield; Thorminc has one or two .... So is that being counted as 2 providers or 4/5 facilities? Even more, we are bringing people into the neighborhood who have just been released from state prisons. I fail to see how taking  chronically homeless off the street is more dangerous to the community than what we provide. For that reason alone, I think this is a small amount of residents not wanting anything to change.

As for some other comments, there are several sex offender houses out on the Westside, there and northside is typically only place they can be located due to city regulations on distances to places where children may gather.

Riverside has a HUGE population of substance abuse/prison transition/homeless transition/AIDS care houses. Actually, it may be equal or even more than Springfield. Not to mention a privately operated transitional house for women still incarcerated by the State.

And yes, Stephen is right. Though there are other hospitals, those hospitals stabilize then transport or refer you to UFJacksonville/SHANDS. County health at Blvd & 6th, the VA. When you are operating a program that may have 25+ clients, you would be foolish to look outside Springfield/Brentwood/Myrtle Ave because you would spend a lot of time and expense transporting people to and from these locations.

I have had a little experience with Ability Housing, some of our clients live in their housing on the Southside and they appear to have a well run program.

[thelakelander]

Does this "medical district" have a development plan?  Something that guides growth and directs facilities, such as what's proposed to specific sites? Something, where every one knows in advance of what the long term goal is? 

Below, an example of New Orleans' Bio District:


Click on the link and you'll be able to read the key, which has specific zones identified for a specific mix of uses.

http://biodistrictneworleans.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Draft_Composite_Scheme_lg_02-04-11.jpg

If so, what areas are identified for support services and associated housing? If not, perhaps it's time to eliminate the silos.

[edjax]

I am sure this is not the first time a building has been purchased and going to be used for something different. This happens. They said they will assist them in finding housing. Assuming the business they are in they will do a good job on placement.  Not sure why they would have to find one facility to place all tenants, just 12 units.

I am sure it will work out with all the caring and loving people assisting.

[JayBird]

^its an apartment building now and they're continuing to use it as an apartment building right? We looked at that property about a year ago for our expansion, they certainly aren't offering any service from there. Unless they remodel it, it will still be used exactly as it is now, just by a targeted demographic.

[edjax]

Bottom line as Mr Meeks stated.  Move it somewhere else as he clearly does not want it in Springfield despite his admiration for their mission. I get it.  So where to now?  Leave them in Hemming homeless? 

[strider]

Below is a scan of a propaganda sheet produced by the leadership of Historic Springfield and handed out to the crowd at last Thursday's Community Meeting with Ability Housing.

Crime Rate of Ability Housing Facility
A recent search has been done to examine the number of calls made to JSO for two properties that
Ability Housing claims to have low crime rates.
Property 887 Franklin St. had 184 visits by JSO from 3/30/12- 3/30/2014
Property 3140 Franklin St. had 137 visits by JSO from 3/30/2012 - 3/30/2014
Property 139 Cottage Ave had 40 visits by JSO from 3/30/2012-3/30/2014
All 3 properties share similar reasons for JSO to come and visit (Serve eviction, noise complaint, drug
investigation, warrants, burglary of business, burglary of residential, drug investigation, assault, assault
with firearm, discharge of firearm, etc)
Both properties that are owned by Ability Housing and managed by CT Management have on-site
supervision/management for their residents. Despite both properties having perimeter fencing acting as
a community safeguard the crime rate is still uncomfortably high.
When comparing these two properties versus Cottage Ave, the numbers show that Property 3140
Franklin st. has a percent increase of 226 which is almost 3.5 times higher than what Cottage Ave
experiences now.
When comparing 887 Franklin St. to Cottage Ave, a percent increase of 360 is found which is 4.6 times
higher than the crimes/violence/safety concerns than what Cottage Ave Experiences now.
These numbers verify that the properties Ability Housing states as being safe comfortable environments
that are nestled into their respective communities may not be as safe as they think. Springfield residents
and business safety may be jeopardized by these enormous percentage increases.

On the surface, it seems very bad for Ability Housing.  But what do those crime statistics really represent?  If we assume that the numbers listed are indeed the number of JSO visits to those precise addresses then we also need to recognize that one can not simply compare the visits per complex to each other without acknowledging the differences between those complexes.   The way the information was presented on this handout was simply comparing address to address.  The address is not the cause of the JSO visits, the people who live there are.  So to compare one complex to another, one must take into account the number of people represented by each address.  As we can not know the number of people in each unit or apartment, the next best way is to compare the number of visits per unit.


887 Franklin St is a 6 building, 60 unit complex.  This means that number of visits translates to about 3 visits per unit or apartment (184/60=3.066).

3140 Franklin is a 3 building 53 unit complex.  This means that the number of visits translates to about 2.6 visits per unit (137/52=2.634).

139 Cottage is a single 12 unit building.  This means that the number of visits translates to about 3.3 visits per unit (40/12=3.333).


Comparing apples to apples makes a difference in what these statistics actually say.  While the propaganda sheet made by the leadership of Historic Springfield tries to present Ability Housing as a poor landlord and liars, the actually facts say the total opposite and support the statements by Ability Housing. 

The propaganda sheet claims that 887 Franklin is 4.6 times worse than the current Cottage residents, the facts show that Cottage is 10%  worse than 887 Franklin.  The claim of 3.5 times worse than the current Cottage residents for 3140 Franklin is in actuality the opposite with Cottage being 26% worse than 3140 Franklin. 
The statements made by Ability Housing claiming they improve the crime issues in their communities they run or own is true. 

The leadership of Historic Springfield over this issue, Mr Moulton, Mr Meeks and Mr Trauntman, among other prominent community members, are guilty of lying to their public. They are doing nothing but rabble rousing in an attempt to insure the general public is sympathetic to their cause.  They are willing to lie and cheat to get that support.  As a member of the Historic Springfield community, I resent that. 

I resent the lies, the statements that this is against the overlay, which it is not.  I resent the rabble rousing to the point of all but inciting a riot.  I resent that this good community, filled with all sorts of economic and racial diversity, is being made to look bad by Mr Meeks, Mr Trautman and others.

Don't like it that this apartment building is being purchased by Ability Housing?  Fine.  State that.  Be truthful  with why.  Do not use lies and innuendo to hide the truth of that why.  Do not use misinformation to further some personal vendetta against another group of residents or potential residents.  Doing so puts all of Springfield in a bad light.

There was a lot of booing and foot-stamping at last Thursdays meeting.  Unfortunately for Springfield, it was misdirected.  It should have been directed at the leaders of the meeting, the people trying to be the leadership of Springfield.  They caused more damage than ten Ability Housing projects can cause.