New location selected for Key West homeless shelter
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
After who knows how many hours of discussions, missed deadlines, reversed decisions, lawsuits and repeated kicking of the can down the road, Key West City officials have finally agreed where to move the Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter (KOTS), the city’s homeless shelter.
A few feet forward from its current location on College Road.
Assistant City Manager Greg Veliz announced at the Jan. 2 city commission meeting that an agreement had been reached between the city, Monroe County and county Sheriff Rick Ramsey to essentially leave KOTS where it is on College Road, next to the sheriff’s department offices. The city had been ordered to move the shelter in 2013 after a judge ruled in favor of the neighboring Sunset Marina condominium owner’s association, which had filed a lawsuit against the city charging it with ignoring its own building permit regulations when it turned an existing sheriff’s department building on Stock Island into an overnight shelter for homeless men and women.
Adding to the pressure to move the shelter was Sheriff Ramsey himself, who increasingly made it clear he wanted to use that site, which is owned by Monroe County, to build affordable housing for his employees.
But after trying several options, including moving the shelter across the street to city-owned property housing the former Easter Seals building and the pet shelter – and a trial balloon quickly shot down that proposed taking over the Bayshore Manor senior assisted living facility – city officials said they simply couldn’t find another suitable location for KOTS. So, they cut a deal with Ramsey giving him a minimum of 30 apartments in the soon-to-be-built, 104-unit workforce rental housing development across the street from the Sheriff’s office on College Road, the same site where commissioners had previously voted to move KOTS. The move satisfies Ramsey’s wish for staff housing, plus moving the KOTS footprint site a few feet further towards College Road will allow more landscaping between the sheriff’s department and the shelter. In addition, the move will create room to build a “place for holding,” an enclosed space hidden from the road where KOTS clients can wait until the shelter is open for the evening. One of the complaints from residents in the area was that shelter clients often meandered up and down College Road waiting to be admitted into the shelter.
Ramsey’s allocation of 30 apartments in the new housing development is a minimum, but could go higher or lower, Veliz said.
“They may occupy 25 units, they may occupy 40, depending on who qualifies and what the need is. So, I don’t see 30 as being a sticking number for anything,” he said, adding, “I think it’s a good trade-off for us.”
Left out of the agreement, a draft of which is currently circulating among the involved parties, is the Sunset Marina Residences of Key West Condominium Association, which filed the 2012 lawsuit alleging the city ignored its own building permit regulations when it built the shelter. Key West City Attorney Sean Smith said that after the court ruling in 2013 the city worked out a settlement with the condo association, where it agreed to use “due diligence in its best efforts” to relocate KOTS. No promises were made to actually move the shelter, though, and after extensive due diligence, Smith said the shelter has to stay where it is.
“We’ve exhausted our efforts to find an alternative location that fits for everybody involved. So, the lawsuit involves basically a nuisance and a permitting question. As it stands, now, that particular zoning district allows a homeless safe zone as a conditional use,” Smith said. “So, as long as we follow our [building] code in locating the homeless shelter, we should be good to go in that area.”
Reached by telephone, condo association Manager Gary Grant said, “oh, my gosh,” when informed of the agreement. He then referred the issue to association President Bernard Ranellone, who said he did not want to comment on the matter.
As for the 104-unit workforce housing development where sheriff’s department employees will get first dibs on 30 units, Veliz said that an architect will be selected at the beginning of February. With an anticipated six months for blueprints to be completed, “we believe by the end of 2019 we can have shovels in the ground,” Veliz said.
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Good work and coverage, Pru
I guess Sheriff Ramsay no longer is concerned for the safety of his female Sheriff headquarters and jail employees being so close to congregated homeless people on his road and College Road and the city transit bus stop there?
I wonder where homeless people will sleep nights while the new KOTS is being built a few feet from the present KOTS? Will the old KOTS stay open during the transition?
The city exercised due diligence in making sure the new KOTS would not be on Key West proper. And in making sure to avoid NIMBY.
A new KOTS takes care of the old KOTS not being built with city permits, but does not deal with the nuisance part of Barton Smith’s lawsuit. I have suspected Smith and the city made a backroom deal, in which the city gave Smith a lot of new building rights for so-called “affordable” rental housing at Sunset Marina, in exchange for Smith not trying to enforce the settlement agreement.
Can imagine the emotional currents in the Sunset Marina homeowner’s association over Smith not trying to enforcement the settlement agreement I suppose they hired them him to get for them.
Sloan