Thread by @Geoffrey_Wardle

I am proud of the work that @ClarkWardleLaw has been able to do for @SanctuaryBoise with the conclusion of last night's public testimony, it is impossible to rebut 14+ hours of statements and testimony in hearings in 5 minutes. Here is my rebuttal that was truncated last night:

The flame of outrage and fear has been evident. Before you close the public record, if there are questions you believe still need to be answered then please ask them.

Five minutes is too little to rebut 12+ hours of comments. It is a defect in Boise City Code that deprives applicants of reasonable due process rights. I will address the following three points

How is this mitigated?
The reality is that most objections are not germane to the CUP standards, and those that are are remedied by the proposed conditions of approval that staff has developed in consultation with your departments.

The test is not if there will be an impact, the test is if the impact can be mitigated upon adherence to the conditions of approval.

We have incorporated the recommendations of the Shelter Better Task Force in our application and our operations

We agree with the conditions that staff has proposed and we further agree to other reasonable conditions. Many objections to this application evidence the fact that the objectors have not in fact reviewed the proposed conditions and are unfamiliar with this process.

We know that this body knows and understands this process. Boise's own experts in its own departments, Police, Fire, Parks, Library, have all said that conditions can be established to mitigate impact

All have indicated that there will not be an undue burden on public facilities as this is not a new use but a relocation of an existing use and reallocation of resources can address that impact

ACHD has indicated that there will not be an undue burden on traffic as this is the adaptive reuse of an existing retail/social service use to a less intensive use.

This site absolutely is large enough to accommodate this use. There are a variety of similar uses that could be developed on the site. As VPNA acknowledged, a motel is permitted of right in a C-2 zone. Contrary to the arguments they have made, a motel could be constructed

without any further process or proceeding.

87 apartments with an unlimited number of bedrooms, constrained only by the relevant floor area ratio could be constructed here.

This is a two acres, existing commercial parcel that has provided social services before that is being adaptively reused. This site long brought those in need to this neighborhood. This is not a material change.

What is the "General Neighborhood" or the "Property of the Vicinity"? Many claim they will be adversely impacted by this use, but what is the Neighborhood?

Where does it begin?
Where does it end?
Whose voices are reasonable?
Does the neighborhood really include three neighborhood associations?

Many in this neighborhood have raised issues about how poor the neighborhood is, pointing to the existing mobile home parks and census data.

However, much of the neighborhood testimony on these points have come from wealthy transplanted retirees in the Lake Harbor

Or it has come from the physician, the engineer, the dentist, the physical therapist, the social worker, the real estate investor, the professor, the lacrosse coach all who live in the Willow Lane area and do not acknowledge themselves as gentrifying the neighborhood

Or it has come from the large lot neighbors in the Tamarack and Hawthorne neighborhoods

Or it has come from those claiming Eagle, South West Boise, the North End or the Foothills as their homes.

They are not concerned about the poor, they are not concerned about the homeless, they have not been willing to have a good faith discussion of this use or this application

This neighborhood includes the business that has used its marquee to campaign agains this use, while simultaneously seeking to hire a dishwasher

This neighborhood includes the individual who testified about their experience volunteering @SanctuaryBoise but who surreptitiously recorded guests in violation of their privacy and had the audacity to ask if he could use his recordings of our guests on his facebook page

This neighborhood includes the adjoining business that asked @SanctuaryBoise to require its guests to wear physical identification when they left the shelter so they could be identified by sight.

If this is the neighborhood, then there will never bee a location where this use will be acceptable. The fact is that

There are other social service providers in this neighborhood.
There are other poor people in this neighborhood.
Why?

This is a neighborhood of opportunity
This is a neighborhood with the best transit access in the city
This is a neighborhood with accessible shopping and employment
This is a neighborhood with affordable housing opportunities.

For all of the testimony you have heard, the reality is that if the neighbors are correct, you will never be able to approve or site any type of Shelter Home anywhere in Boise, unless the code is changed and you acquiesce to the demands that the homeless be placed out of sight

Opponents do not care that

1-The four commercial zones where this use is permitted with as a conditional use are all in comparable proximity to residential properties.

2-COVID is the crisis that has forced us to move forward with a relocated and expanded shelter.

3-Interfaith's guests have to currently cross an interstate off ramp to access shelter

4-Interfaith has operated for years in conjunction with and regular consultation with BPD, BFD, and other service providers

5-Interfaith has brought the courts, DMV, Health Care, job training, counseling, to its guests to the extent it can with its limited space.

6-This is Boise's only low barrier provider, a provider that is needed, a provider that exists because our faith leaders took up the mantle dropped by the City of Boise years ago

7-Interfaith's guests are subjected to the "horrors of Cooper Court" not the cause of it.

Boise has long approved similar uses, in similar neighborhoods, in similar proximity to residential and commercial uses

The River of Life facility on 13th Street is as close to other residential and commercial uses as the Salvation Army site is.

City Light Home for Women and the other Rescue Mission facilities on Jefferson are as close to other residential and commercial uses as the Salvation Army site is.

In fact, the application before you today has far more conditions than any prior application for a Shelter Home ever evaluated for a Conditional Use Permit.

So Why Serve This Community?
The vilification of the homeless is distressing
All have mothers and fathers
Some have children, nieces and nephews
Some may abuse drugs and alcohol
Some may be in recovery
Some may have criminal records
Some may not have criminal records

Some may have jobs
Some may be unemployed
Some may be retired
Some may have health issues that are exacerbated by a lack of treatment
Some have pets

Ultimately, the homeless are like each and every one of us. The thing that makes them different is their lack of housing, the lack of support, and the vilification they receive. Interfaith Sanctuary works to support this population, to stabilize their lives

These are our fellow members of the community.
They should not be vilified. They should not be othered. They should be respected.

This is not a rezone, this is a conditional use permit. Boise City has determined that just four zones, all commercial, comprising just 7% of the area of the city, are where shelter homes can be placed

The real question has to be, if you cannot adaptively reuse a former social service facility, operated by the Salvation Army, on a Boise's most effective transit line, within the general commercial zone, which would permit a motel of right, then where?

I will never agree that the homeless should be ghettoized and forced to live in industrial areas like some have suggested. Those that argue for such have lost all humanity and decency.

I grew up on 28th Street and went to Lowell Elementary in this neighborhood
My grandparents lived and managed a mobile home park in the neighborhood
After we all left home my parents stayed in this neighborhood
When I returned from Law School, I lived in this neighborhood

What we have heard makes me glad that I left the neighborhood, because this is not what I grew up with, this is not how my family taught us. I don't know how we have descended so far.

We ask that you approve this application consistent with the Staff's recommendation for approval with the conditions of approval recommended by your own departments. Thank you. #housing #landuse #homelessness