Plan Commission to recommend rezoning for homeless center property on Old Cleveland Road

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - Plans for a new low-barrier homeless center in South Bend appear to be moving forward.

Late on Tuesday afternoon, the city’s application to rezone a parcel of land on Old Cleveland Road for the center got the endorsement of the South Bend Plan Commission.

The low-barrier intake center has been in the works for the last six years. Nearly a year ago to the day, the City of South Bend was looking at another location off Bendix Drive near the school bus garage but encountered a lot of community resistance.

At the meeting, the Old Cleveland Road location got the backing of the plan commission. Next stop, the full common council.

New Day Intake Center Board President Margaret Pfeil is pleased the rezoning is moving forward.

“I think everyone in our community should be housed,” Pfeil said. “We should not as a community treat this as normal. It’s not normal, it is a basic human right.”

She said it’s South Bends duty as a community to come together in support of an intake center in the area of the 4000 block of Old Cleveland Road in South Bend.

“I think this is a necessary step,” Pfeil said. “We are encountering the people in our community, 88% of the people we have seen over the last four and a half years are from this local community. So, these are our own sons, daughters, mothers, fathers and relatives, loved ones who have had a lot of difficult things happen in their lives.”

Five out of the nine Area Plan Commission members were present at the meeting and unanimously favored to rezone the 15-acre parcel from industrial to suburban.

Pfeil said another reason why this center should move forward is because of the four-and-a-half-year success with Motels4Now.

“We are going through an arctic freeze right now. It’s been below zero for two days right now. We have between 115 and 120 people who have been housed nightly at our current location. Imagine if they had nowhere to go,” Pfeil said.

The South Bend Common Council will make the final decision for the center next Monday, Jan. 27.