WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The city council decided to donate 100,000 dollars to build a new shelter site for the homeless in downtown West Lafayette at its meeting held Wednesday.
Our Savior Lutheran Church, a church in West Lafayette, has provided a shelter for the homeless for 10 years. The church relies on volunteers to operate the shelter, and private donations to pay for the food and increased utility costs.
As the staff has been overwhelmed in recent years, local church leaders, non-profit leaders, and area civic leaders formed the Coalition for the Homeless Inc., a nonprofit organization, and hope to build a new, non-profit, privately operated shelter.
The coalition leaders must still raise $1,500,000 to construct the shelter from private and corporate donations and state and federal grants.
“We’re certain that if you provide the land, we’ll be able to, uh, come up with all the money for this thing.” said Jennifer Layton, executive director of Lafayette Transitional Housing.
She said that the site we have in mind is so old and worthless, and we’d tear it down, but it is an ideal location for our purposes.
Coalition leaders say the shelter will rely on volunteers and donations from concerned citizens, area churches, and corporations, and government grants to operate once built.
However, not every people at the meeting agreed with this decision. Scott Walker, CEO of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, thought a shelter site built downtown will cause problems to local citizens.
We agree that the city needs a shelter but not on State Street, Walker said. Because people are not allowed to stay in the shelters during the day, they basically end up hanging around the shelter outside.
Walker said, “We’ve got customers who say they don’t come downtown anymore because of the homeless, because of being approached and asked for money, or ranted at.”
After the meeting, we had an interview with Jennifer Layton. She said the new site is hope to be up and running in a year.
“We are very grateful to the council and we are sorry that not everyone could support this idea.” She said, “We understand and will work to address their concerns they presented.”
Broadcast Version:
The city council will donate $100,000 to build a new shelter for the homeless.
Our Savior Lutheran Church has provided a shelter for the homeless for 10 years. But the staff is overwhelmed recently so they decide to build a new shelter.
Coalition leaders must still raise $1,500,000 to construct the shelter. The shelter will rely on volunteers and donations.
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