GB Mayor appears to be trying to shut down St. John's homeless shelter

In the latest salvo surrounding a Green Bay downtown homeless shelter, Mayor Jim Schmitt is proposing turning over the facility to an outside group that would dramatically change the operation.

Opponents of the mayor’s proposal are immediately blasting it as a thinly veiled attempt to shut down the controversial St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter.

The two sides clashed Monday at a Green Bay City Council committee meeting called to consider a special task force’s ideas for combating homelessness.

Members of the task force suggested renewing efforts to establish a day center where homeless people could gather and obtain services while they wait for St. John’s to open for another night of emergency shelter.

Schmitt said that proposal would not adequately address the root causes of homelessness. Instead, he wants to allow a new organization, Freedom Life Skills, to operate the shelter as a 24-hour-a-day center for housing and counseling homeless people.“I don’t think we need another facility,” he said. “We’ve got to come together and set egos aside and leverage a facility that we have here.”

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