Columbia leaders want to move homeless services. But is that what the shelter wants?
The operator of Columbia’s main downtown homeless shelter doesn’t oppose moving it, but he wants credit for the work it already does.
“We want to support the mayor. We’re interested in seeing how it all develops,” said Craig Currey, CEO of Transitions Homeless Center on Main Street, responding to Mayor Daniel Rickenmann’s statement last week that homeless services should be moved out of downtown. “He has a broad vision for what needs to happen in the city.”
But, Currey added, “we have been working since 2011 and put over 3,400 people into permanent housing. So we’re going to continue to do that.”
Rickenmann last Tuesday formally announced a program already underway to address homelessness in Columbia’s core, dubbed Operation Hope and Order.
Part of Rickenmann’s announcement included the statement that the Transitions shelter and Oliver Gospel Mission, as well as other homeless services, need to be moved away from downtown into a new campus dedicated to that kind of care — both to address crime and sanitation issues downtown and to provide more services to the people in need of them.
The announcement was a surprise to Currey. He said he was not aware there would be a news conference about homelessness at all. Still, he has known for a while that the mayor and other Columbia leaders would like to see his facility relocated.
Part of why Transitions was located downtown in the first place when it opened in 2011 was because very few places in the city were zoned in a way that would allow it, Currey said.
It would also be an expensive relocation, he added. When it was first built, the project cost $12 million, Currey said. In today’s construction economy, he believes it would cost much more. He also worries if the location is too far from the city core, people won’t use it anyway.
When asked if he thinks it would be positive to create a campus focused on providing services to residents experiencing homelessness, he said a lot of those services are already available.
“We have 260 beds here, and we’ve been operating for 12 years now,” he said. “We are a one-stop shop here.”
Clinicians from the Department of Mental Health come to Transitions twice a week, and Eau Claire Cooperative Health provides a nurse practitioner — right now, a medical doctor — to offer primary care to those staying at the shelter. They are working to hire an addiction specialist as well.
The shelter could always use more resources, he said, but stressed they do provide a range of care.
Still, if the city can get funding for a new campus and identify a location that will get approval, he’ll be open-minded, Currey said.
“We want to be partners with the city. The city supports us; we’re grateful for that,” he said. “There’s a lot of details here, and we’ll certainly be open to what the mayor works out.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2023 at 2:21 PM.
