Danville City Council approves funding for House of Hope

Danville City Council approved a Community Block Development Grant for the House of Home homeless shelter at Tuesday’s regular meeting — but not without objections from two members of council.

Fred Shanks said he still feels House of Hope’s search committee “circumvented” City Code to get approval to move into its new Ridge Street location, and claimed it received favorable treatment from city officials who “clearly supported” the group.

Shanks also said House of Hope officials asked for the opportunity to prove its worth, and suggested that the city should not allocate any funds to the shelter until they had proved themselves for at least a year.

Council member David Luther also opposed the funding, saying at least one city official had been on House of Hope’s board of directors and a member of the search committee, a situation he called a “conflict of interest.”

Other members of City Council disagreed, including Larry Campbell, who noted that city officials on the board left when House of Hope applied for CBDG funds, because that would have caused a conflict of interest.

Campbell said House of Hope followed the rules to get into its new location.

“The process in which it was done met City Codes,” Campbell said.

Council member Adam Tomer said the issue now is not about whether House of Hope should have been allowed to locate on Ridge Street, but whether their application for CBDG funds should be approved.

“The code was in place that allowed it (House of Hope’s location),” Tomer said. “It’s over.”

Tomer also said refusing the group the funding would only punish the homeless, not the people who made the decision to locate the shelter downtown.

“The people who need the homeless shelter are the ones who will feel the sting, not the board,” Tomer said.

Council member Buddy Rawley said he recently spent a night at the shelter, signing in like the homeless have to and going to the police department for a background check.

Rawley admitted he was nervous, but said he learned many of the men staying at the shelter are out-of-work laborers who are waiting for work. He also said two women were using the shelter’s facilities the night he was there.

“I was with them and talked with them,” Rawley said. “The clientele was better than you’d ever think.”

Shanks and Luther voted against the proposal; all other members of City Council approved it.

Now the issue will go before the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which disburses CBDG funds. It will hold a public hearing before giving final approval for the funding, Dianne Morris, Danville’s director of Housing and Development, said.

Morris said HUD’s final decision on whether to award House of Hope the funding will take six to eight weeks.

In other business handled during the City Council meeting:

• Members listened to residents of Ross Street, the site of a recent homicide and repeated shootings. They asked for increased safety measures, including additional police patrols, camera surveillance and removal or renovation of blighted properties. Residents said they are living in fear. Council members said they had received many calls about the issue, and Mayor Sherman Saunders said he knows the police department is working on the problems. Saunders also asked Deputy City Manager Joe King to let City Council know if more police resources are needed to take care of the problem.

• City Council unanimously approved a resolution to support a project to bring an American Municipal Power plant to the Berry Hill mega-park. The joint city and Pittsylvania County project would be named “Southern Virginia Energy Park,” and the AMP plant would fill up the southwestern portion of the park if the deal is finalized.

• Contact Thibodeau at dthibodeau@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7985.