Group wants Springfield to set aside land for homeless people to live in vehicles

Before that plan gets to a public vote, the New Life Evangelistic Center may run afoul of a city zoning law.

November 09, 2011|by Linda Russell, KY3 News | lrussell@ky3.com

A blue tarp was around part of the parking lot of New Life Evangelistic Center's Veterans Coming Home building on Wednesday afternoon.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A group that helps homeless people would like to come up with an acre of property in the city where people could live in their vehicles if they have no permanent housing. The Rev. Larry Rice's New Life Evangelistic Center plans to hold a news conference on Thursday morning to talk about the proposal.

A news release announcing Rice's news conference says his group plans to launch an initiative petition drive to ask voters to force the city to set aside an acre for "the Homeless of Springfield to reside until permanent housing can be Established & provided." It also says "New Life Evangelistic Center is making available a parking lot for our local homeless living in their cars & campers & others receiving tickets for sleeping on unused sidewalks & vacant lots."

The news conference is at 10 a.m. at a fenced parking lot off BobBarker Boulevard (formerly Brower Street) between Jefferson and Benton avenues. That's next to New Life Evangelistic Center's Veterans Coming Home building, the former U.S. Social Security office that is now a daytime resource center for veterans.

On Wednesday afternoon, a blue tarp was around part of that parking lot. Tents were inside the tarped-off area, which would be accessible to vehicles by a gate. A city official said the tarp wasn't there before Wednesday.

The parking lot and Veterans Coming Home are a block south of Central High School, and school representatives objected a few years ago when Rice acquired the building from the federal government. They didn't want homeless people staying so close to the school and its students.

On Wednesday, a school district representative said the district hadn't heard about Rice's proposal.

"We are currently awaiting a response from City of Springfield officials about whether using that property for a homeless shelter complies with city ordinances and zoning. At this point, we’ll wait for a response from the city and to hear the specifics of Rev. Rice’s announcement tomorrow before making any comment on the initiative," school district spokeswoman Teresa Bledsoe said in an e-mail message.

Rice's group is banned by a city zoning law from having people stay in the building overnight. In an interview, City Attorney Dan Wichmer said the ban also would apply to people staying overnight in the parking lot outside the building.

City Clerk Brenda Cirtin said Wednesday morning that no one had approached her office about starting a petition drive for the proposal for an acre where homeless people could stay in vehicles. Cirtin said she often refers such an inquiry to the city attorney's office to make sure the initiative petition proposal would be a legal and enforceable ordinance.

A representative of New Life Evangelistic Center says that parking lot on BobBarker Boulevard is not envisioned as the permanent place for the outdoor acre where homeless people could stay, but the group would like to use the lot as a temporary location for those accommodations. The representative said Rice was not in the city on Wednesday but would be at the news conference on Thursday.

New Life Evangelistic Center has shelters, free stores and other operations to help poor and homeless people in more than a dozen locations in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Illinois.

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