Possible shelter move prompts complaints

PANAMA CITY — Neighbors and business owners near the site of a vacant furniture store on 15th Street are complaining to city officials about the possibility of the downtown homeless shelter moving there.

Shelter officials have said they are exploring moving the facility from its current location at 609 Allen Ave. to the former site of the Rooms To Go store at 1318 W. 15th St., as it would offer more needed space, said Thurman Chambers, the executive director of the shelter earlier this week.

“It fits our needs,” Chambers said. “It would make a complete campus: retail, ministry and housing.”

But Mayor Greg Brudnicki said he’s had quite a few calls from people who are opposed to that possible move.

The shelter “wanted to move into that space so they could use the front as a store and convert the rest of it,” he said. “What they are going to have to do is find something that is affordable and doesn’t make surrounding people mad, and it’s been very difficult task,” he said. “For several years, we’ve been trying to find them another place to go.”

Brudnicki said there has been “tremendous push back “to the concept of moving the shelter to the former furniture store location.

“I’ve had people from the shopping center next door say they would not renew leases in the shopping center if the shelter moved into that building,” he said. “NIMBY occurs there also. They do not want them there, and I told them because of what has gone on in the past with the Rescue Mission, it’s hard to change public perception of what they are doing.”

Chambers said the mission board has not made a decision about whether to move into the former furniture store location, which sits next to Panama Plaza on the corner of 15th Street and Lisenby Avenue. “We’re going to have opposition anywhere we go,” he said.

Tom Caulkins, the owner of Airport Furniture in the Panama Plaza shopping center, said that area is not appropriate for a homeless shelter. The downside is pretty obvious, he said.

He said he also has safety concerns for the homeless people who could be walking around the area.

“I’m concerned about the speed limits there,” he said, referring to the 45 mph limit. “Crosswalks are not used. It is a retail business location.”

Brudnicki said he continues to look for other sites for the shelter, but it’s not an easy task as nobody seems to want it in their backyard. He said he would support the city helping fund the move of the shelter if an adequate site can be found.

“But there are four other commissioners, and I don’t know where they are” on the issue, he said.

Over the years, city officials have said they preferred the shelter not be located in downtown Panama City, particularly with the city’s redevelopment efforts.

Brudnicki said the shelter today is attracting a much better crowd since Chambers took over last year, and there have only been a fraction of police calls to the area compared to a few years ago, he said.

“It’s all about perception, but perception is reality,” Brudnicki said. “Based on what has happened in the past, I have to be sensitive to those issues. I’m still very much in support of Chambers running it. He’s done a great job and has great employees. We just need to find the right place” to move the shelter.

Brudnicki said he support programs to help down-on-their luck local families who become homeless. But he said in year’s past, vagrants who wanted to be homeless from out of the area have come into town to stay in the area of the Rescue Mission.

“I believe we have less vagrants coming to town” today, he said. “One problem we had before was our mission was allowing people to do things they couldn’t do where came from.”