Council advances homeless shelter

STEVENS POINT — A homeless shelter, to be located at 2854 Church Street, has advanced through two big approvals from the Common Council.
The property unanimously approved a rezoning request from the council, turning the land from single family residence to commercial district.
During the discussion of approving the conditional use permit to operate the shelter, Alderperson Guthrie suggested revising to the conditions. Guthrie suggested completely striking the fifth conditional use, which would not allow guests of the shelter to be on the property thirty minutes after close.
“They’ve got some professional staff that they plan to hire—who are social workers, who plan to host meetings—and I don’t want to micro manage when they can operate some of those interfaces. They are trained professionals and I trust them to operate this space without such tight oversight.” Guthrie said.
Guthrie then suggested amending the sixth conditional use, changing the expiration of the conditional use permit from twelve months to eighteen months. She stated by changing the time frame to eighteen months it will provide the shelter approximately a full year of operating before it would expire, with the shelter hoping to open in the fall of 2026.
Other conditional uses include that the building occupancy is limited to 35 persons, guest rules must be created and shared with city staff, two staff members shall be at the facility at all times with one staff member being professionally trained, the operator of the facility will provide the city an annual report, and city staff shall have the ability to approve minor amendments to the submitted plan set.
The two amendments suggested by Alderperson Guthrie were unanimously approved, as well as a unanimous approval of the conditional use permit.