*Runyan: ‘I don’t want to hem people in; I want to open it up’ *
Columbia will take private proposals this fall on how it should remedy the city’s homeless problem. But what exactly the city’s looking for isn’t clear.
Councilman Cameron Runyan, who championed a plan to open the city’s annual winter shelter early, said Monday that the city would accept proposals through Jan. 2, 2014. It has not yet drafted its request for proposals.
The city’s original plan included an out-of-town, 100-plus-acre shelter. But Runyan said that while he is committed to such a plan, he wasn’t sure what exactly the proposals would entail — and that they wouldn’t necessarily include a physical facility.
“I’ll be interested to see what comes up,” Runyan said. “I don’t want to hem people in; I want to open it up.”
Absent from the groups pitching their solutions: Christ Central Ministries. The group is running the city’s winter shelter this year and paying most of the cost of the plan, which has garnered broad criticism and national media attention.
“After this round, I don’t think you could beat me into it,” said Rev. Jimmy Jones, Christ Central’s founder.
Runyan and Jones emphasized at a Monday town hall meeting that the shelter was a temporary fix, not a long-term solution.
The plan, which was approved by City Council last week, continued to face criticism Monday, as the homeless, service providers and citizens said they wished there had been more public input and that they were concerned the plan didn’t address the causes of homelessness.
“You tell us that this is an emergency situation, but this has been an emergency situation for years,” said Benjamin Bullock, 26, of Columbia.
Bullock sat beside Tim Bupp, pastor at Reformation Lutheran Church, who said that while he liked the intent of Runyan’s plan, he had concerns about its focus.
“I really haven’t heard anyone try to get to the root of the problem,” Bupp said.