News

Jul 17, 2023

Restaurant protests shelter relocation

The owner of a local Mexican restaurant and cantina has launched a petition drive to resist the City Council’s plans to relocate its temporary homeless shelter next door to the eatery. Efrain Romero,

The owner of a local Mexican restaurant and cantina has launched a petition drive to resist the City Council’s plans to relocate its temporary homeless shelter next door to the eatery.

Efrain Romero, owner of Tarahumara at 702 N. Porter Ave, said he is concerned that a homeless shelter will drive customers away from his restaurant.

The council agreed to move forward with plans to renovate the city owned building at 718 N. Porter as a homeless shelter.

If the council approves a formal ordinance, the shelter will relocate from its present site at 109 W. Gray St, a location that has drawn complaints from nearby downtown property owners.

Romero told The Transcript he and his customers are fed up with panhandling, attempted auto burglary, vandalism and public health risks on the property.

“I probably have at least 200 signatures,” he said. “Customers are tired of being harassed by these homeless people, asking for money. Some of these homeless people are drugged up, can barely talk, looking into the windows to see if they can get something out of their cars. I mean, you name it.”

He added they have people sleep on the patio and “pee and poo,” he said. “It’s just crazy.”

The Transcript pulled police reports and call logs for service to Tarahumara two other nearby properties in the 500 block of Porter Avenue.

Of the 30 reports from April 1, 2023 to July 31, 2023, more than half, 18, were complaints on homeless or people who were believed to be homeless.

Those complaints including homeless people drawing on cars, fighting in the parking lot, disruptive behavior in the dining room and outside the restaurant. Most of the calls for service, 10, were requested at a gas station, with four at a drugstore and five at the restaurant.

Romero said he worried it would increase if the shelter moves next door.

“The people who won’t fit in the shelter are going to be outside,” he said. “Therefore, they’ll find a place a sleep, under the trees, in the beautiful garden I’ve got or on the patio.”

April Doshier, executive director of Food & Shelter, operates “A Friend’s House” shelter via a contract with the city.

“If we were to relocate A Friend’s House to 718 N Porter, this would allow us to provide shelter to more people at night which would reduce the presence of people downtown,” Doshier said. “We believe with the changes to the layout offered by the city of Norman, this building would provide a more guarded space, give our guests a place to gather that is meant for them and help alleviate some of the concerns of downtown Norman.”

Doshier added that officers have told her that “the shelter has been a great help to them because at least 40 to 50 people are inside and their officers are free to respond to more important interventions other than a person sleeping in the park.”

NPD Spokeswoman Sarah Jensen Shettler said despite this, calls for service and in the downtown area have increased and she could not confirm if the shelter has an impact on police demand.

Doshier also noted that there has been no evidence businesses have experienced a drop in customers since the shelter opened in November 2022.

She added that the city has also presented a plan to ensure the new location will be an attractive one.

“The layout presented at the pre-development meeting by city staff showed a very lovely site plan with a backyard courtyard fenced in to keep neighboring properties separated,” Doshier said. “Our team does a great job of keeping 109 W. Gray clear of debris and trash. We will do this at our next location wherever that may be. We at Food and Shelter love Norman. We are invested in making Norman the best it can be for all our neighbors.”

The relocation proposal, a zoning item, will appear on the Planning Commission’s Aug. 10 agenda, according the city’s planning department.

It was not known when the item would appear before the council, but if signatures from 50% of property owners within a 350-feet radius are collected, the city’s zoning ordinance would then require ¾ majority approval, or seven votes from the council to adopt it, said City Attorney Kathryn Walker.

“Protests are submitted to the City Clerk and our GIS (geographical information system) department uses that information to determine whether a supermajority vote of council will be required,” Walker said.

Mayor Larry Heikkila said he is not inclined to approve it, despite a study the council commissioned which recommended a permanent shelter.

“People are angry because the population of homeless people seems to be increasing, businesses are being vandalized and council does not listen to them,” he said.

Heikkila referred to the failure of an August 2020 bond election which asked voters to approve $5 million for a homeless shelter.

“The voters said ‘no’, it lost by 785 votes. These voters are still saying ‘no’ and council still is not listening,” he said.

Asked when the council should heed its paid experts or voters, he said, “We were voted into office to do the will of the citizens. We paid consultants to give us answers to complex problems. If the consultant’s advice is contrary to the will of those who hired us, I’d say we obey the citizens.”

In previous meetings, council members such as former Ward 5 Rarchar Torotorello and Ward 3 former councilor, Kelly Lynn have disagreed with fellow council members about the methodology to solve homelessness. A proposal to create data criteria to track the effectiveness of the shelter failed to reach majority support earlier this year.

The council has also debated whether the approach to housing should require drug and mental health treatment, or a housing-first model which does not require those services in order to qualify for housing placement.

The city’s shelter is a housing first approach, which is staffed with case managers to offer substance use, mental health and job placement services.

Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable lawsuits for The Transcript. Reach her at [email protected] or 405-416-4420.

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