Green Bay Expands St John's Homeless Shelter Capacity

WBAY

Tuesday night brought a big victory for supporters of St. John's homeless shelter in downtown Green Bay as they fought to increase the number of people allowed to stay in the shelter each night.

In a unanimous voice vote, after hours of debate, the Green Bay City Council approved increasing the occupancy limit by 20 guests per night.

The benches inside the council chambers were crowded with guests, volunteers, and staff members wearing blue T-shirts reading "I Am St. John's."


Much of the meeting was taken up by city council members asking questions to St. John's homeless shelter officials, covering in depth such issues as cost and capacity.

After all of that, the council voted to increase the cap.

Previously, St. John's officials say they were operating under a 64-person cap with an overflow area for 20. They say that was consistent with their operating plan.

But the city cited the shelter for being over capacity, because they said those extra people exceeded the conditional use permit.

Both sides say raising the cap to 84 gets rid of any ambiguity.

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