City puts commitment up front on homeless day center

The homeless day center slated to open this fall in central Vancouver raised concerns and questions among residents of surrounding neighborhoods who weren’t sure what to expect.

Will people be allowed to camp? What about trash? How will the city make sure the day center lives up to certain standards?

A new document, called the good neighbor commitment, outlines the city’s commitment to addressing those concerns.

“It’s our commitment to the neighborhood of what we will do,” said Peggy Sheehan, community and economic development programs manager. She fielded a lot of questions during public forums about the day center. “It just seems like the right thing to do to let folks know what to expect.”

The good neighbor commitment was drafted by the city and representatives from the Maplewood and Rose Village neighborhood associations, the two groups that had appealed the city’s decision to use 2018 Grand Blvd., a former state Fish and Wildlife building, as a day center. (The appeal was later rejected by the hearings examiner and the city.)

Jamie Spinelli, who lives in Central Park, said it seems like people want to make sure existing laws and ordinances are regularly enforced.

“I think that all the requests sound very basic,” she said.

Spinelli advocates for people experiencing homelessness through outreach work both at her job with Community Services Northwest and in her free time with the nonprofit Food With Friends. She volunteers time providing showers at the current day center at Friends of the Carpenter and doesn’t feel like the day center has had a major impact on the surrounding area. Some people have based their opinions and expectations for the future day center on what occurs around Share House, the men’s homeless shelter, rather than the current day center, Spinelli said.

Chris Prothero, chair of Harney Heights, said the good neighbor commitment was brought to their meeting last month and residents are “cautiously optimistic.”

“It was met with positivity but a little bit of skepticism on whether the city would come through on their end to the extent that the neighborhoods are hoping for,” he said.

He said people would like to see more specific commitments, such as the city committing to having a police officer at the day center for a certain amount of hours each week. That would create a more clear benchmark for accountability, Prothero said.