Shelter loses temporary overflow option

GREEN BAY - With temperatures feeling below zero, guests at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church's homeless shelter are happy to be in from the cold.

“It's wonderful,” said Jeff Graves, a guest at the shelter. “Otherwise people would be freezing, possibly to death.”

“Anybody who comes to our doors in these kinds of elements, we certainly will not turn them away,” said Alexia Wood, the executive director of the shelter.

That is despite the threat of fines totaling more than $600 for each day the shelter goes over its city permit capacity of 64 guests. City officials say the shelter had been going over that limit consistently this season.

In an effort to comply with the city, the shelter had been busing its overflow guests to St. Norbert College for the past month. But on Monday, students returned from winter break, eliminating the college as an option.

“We've had a couple agencies and organizations reach out to us with questions and to express interest in potentially becoming an overflow site for us, but to date nobody has become a viable overflow option,” said Wood.

So the shelter is now back to housing more than 64 guests. Shelter officials say it can handle 84 guests.

“In weather like this, our primary need is to make sure everybody is safe and they are out of these kinds of elements and then secondary to that would be to come up with a long-term solution to work with the city to make sure our numbers match what we feel we can serve and what the city says we can serve,” said Wood.

Green Bay's assistant attorney says the city won't issue anymore fines as long as the shelter continues to work toward compliance with its permit capacity.

As for staying open during the day, the shelter's policy calls for it to happen when the high temperature is below zero, or wind chills reach negative 20.

“It's bad and if St. Johns wasn't here, a lot of these people would have no where to go and there would probably be more people dying out in the streets,” said Graves.

Shelter officials have submitted paperwork to the city to raise its permit capacity to 84. City officials are expected to take the issue up next month.

Meanwhile, a hearing concerning the shelter's fines so far is set for February 5th.