Turlock puts off sale of homeless shelter

By MERRILL BALASSONE
mbalassone@modbee.com

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Turlock will hold off on seeking buyers for a converted B Street warehouse that once served as the city's homeless shelter, after the City Council unanimously voted down plans Tuesday to build a temporary cold weather shelter on the city's industrial west side.

The council will again discuss options for housing the homeless this winter at its meeting Aug. 26. Council members have voiced ideas such as issuing hotel vouchers, bringing the B Street building up to code or finding a different location.

Mayor John Lazar, Vice Mayor Kurt Vander Weide and Councilwoman Beverly Hatcher voted against a proposal to open bidding on the B Street building late Tuesday night. Sparks flew when Hatcher said selling the former shelter without another option for the homeless this winter would be "un-Christian."

Council members Ted Howze and Kurt Spycher voted to begin seeking bids on the sale of the B Street warehouse.

Lazar said he favored using some of the $900,000 earmarked for a new shelter to upgrade the B Street site.

"I think improving B Street is a good approach," said Lazar, who voted by telephone while on vacation in Oregon. "This problem is not going to go away, and these people are going to be forced back onto Main Street in the cold and in the doorways of business owners downtown."

The City Council unanimously rejected the idea of building a cold weather homeless shelter near the waste-water treatment plant on South Walnut Road, which members of the public argued would keep the homeless too far from services they need in downtown Turlock and create a nuisance for nearby business owners.

Bee staff writer Merrill Balassone can be reached at mbalassone@modbee.com or 578-2337.