FARMINGTON – The details of a performance standard that would regulate future homeless shelters are still in progress; the zoning board made several decisions about those details at a meeting two weeks ago and will continue workshopping them throughout the summer.
The standard is being created due to a complete lack of guidelines for shelters to exist in the Farmington area. Board members have been using language from a number of other municipalities across the state to attempt to create the document, which will need to be approved by town members at a special town meeting before being adopted.
At the end of the process, the standard will determine where and how homeless shelters are able to operate; board members approved allowing the shelter to exist in any of the zoning districts, including in the downtown area, assuming that they follow all performance standard guidelines.
“It seems like the simplest, least controversial and most direct way to do it,” board member John Moore said.
Pastor of St. Joseph Parish Father Paul Dumais has started a conversation about providing space for a potential future shelter in the parish hall on Quebec Street. While he emphasized that the solution should be a community-based one, he said the parish is looking for more ways to be at the table. A feasibility study will kick off this fall, and Dumais said he plans to stay engaged with the issue between now and then.
“Because we are looking to make an institutional commitment to respond to real needs in the community, we have committed staff and parish resources to help solve real challenges in the community. We have been following the discussions about homelessness and would like to be at the table to respond to this basic human need,” Dumais said.
In a unanimous, vote board members approved the definition to be used as follows:
“A facility, the primary purpose of which is to provide temporary accommodations to homeless persons, free of monetary charge or at nominal costs, in apartments, dormitory-style or barracks-style arrangements, or any combination of such arrangements. Accommodations are provided on a temporary basis, meaning that the facility is intended to serve as a refuge and a bridge between homelessness and residency in a suitable fixed location. Such facility also provides, in addition to shelter, support services (such as food, hygiene, laundry, staff offices and meeting rooms for counseling, job training and referrals to other agencies in excess of the maximum floor area percentage permitted).
At the next meeting, board members will discuss how many beds a shelter can have, whether or not the shelter can operate 24 hours, and how many staffing will be required.
Some professionals in the field feel that requiring 24-hour staffing is too high of an expectation. However, Moore reported that a number of shelters throughout the state do operate with 24 hour language, and are seemingly a success.
“If it can’t be done, how are they doing it? I just don’t see how that connects with what is going on statewide,” he said.
