Catholic Charities CEO fields questions, concerns about St. Elizabeth Center

LORAIN — Residents and service providers filled Carey's Gathering Place event center Tuesday evening to hear from Catholic Charities CEO Jim Mullen, local officials and law enforcement about continued complaints surrounding St. Elizabeth Center at Caroline Avenue and East 28th Street. Catholic Charities' St. Elizabeth Center, which includes a 50-bed men's homeless center, providing a daily hot meal program and other services, moved to Caroline Avenue from downtown Lorain in late 2017. Earlier this year, longstanding complaints about individuals' conduct surrounding the shelter came to a head at a town hall hosted by Councilman Tony Dimacchia, D-at Large. There, residents demanded that the Caroline Avenue shelter be moved and alleged the men who stay there have vandalized nearby properties and harassed passersby. At Tuesday's town hall, the nonprofit CEO and others respond to some of the neighbors' concerns. Mayor Jack Bradley said he, Assistant Safety/Service Director Tim Williams and members of Lorain police visited Catholic Charities about a year and a half ago. There, the group spoke to shelter residents and individuals in the day room, as well as staff. Bradley said there were people "hanging out outside" the shelter and felt it was a major concern for the neighborhood, which prompted discussions about an agreement between the charity and police department. Those discussions are ongoing, Bradley and Safety/Service Director Rey Carrion said, but are expected to be finalized soon. Williams said the agreement will outline future collaboration between local police and the shelter, including plans to have officers on site. "Lorain is a compassionate city," Bradley said. "We have an obligation to take care of all our citizens." Mullen said cities like Lorain are in a housing and mental health crisis, and both of those issues will take a collective approach to solve. He said Catholic Charities believes in the dignity of its clients and the safety of the community. Not every person who is in the area of Caroline Avenue and East 28th Street is a Catholic Charities' client, he said, and noted the shelter's residents can come and go as they please — it is not a prison. Catholic Charities is in the process of changing some of its policies, he said, and will include additional accountability measures at its centers across Northeast Ohio to help "ensure that people in our care are acting appropriately." Those changes include refusing service to individuals who steal from or assault fellow residents or staff, and weapons will not be tolerated. One of the largest complaints about St. Elizabeth Center is the shelter accepts sex offenders. It is the only shelter in the city to do so. Lorain County Sheriff's Office deputies explained the process for individuals convicted in Lorain County as sex offenders, including those who reside at St. Elizabeth Center. Those individuals, depending on the tier level of their conviction, must register with the Sheriff's Office one to three times each year and provide a current address. Deputies verify where that individual lives and works and do "spot verifications," where they show up to the individual's listed address unannounced to confirm they still live there. Of the 50 men living at St. Elizabeth Center, 12 are registered sex offenders according to the county, deputies said. There are others who are homeless and have previously listed the street corner as their address, but that is no longer compliant and those individuals now have active felony warrants for their arrest. Mullen addressed concerns about the shelter accepting sex offenders while so close to a school. Lorain Preparatory High School, a charter school, opened this year at 2702 Elyria Ave. in the former St. Stanislaus Church. He said when the school opened, there was no objection from the school or community of the shelter and Lorain Prep coexisting, but admitted that since then, concerns have come up. "The reality is, you can go in and put your address, and you'll see sex offenders living all around the city," Mullen said. "They do have a right to live somewhere. We all do." A woman in the crowd interjected, questioning a sex offender's right to housing, but Mullen continued undeterred. He said the individuals in St. Elizabeth Center's care receive "exceptional service" to address mental health needs and housing barriers. He later said Catholic Charities acts as a "front door" for services, and that many of the chronically homeless individuals who pass through its shelter have coexisting issues like substance abuse, mental illness and past trauma. He said the answer is not to have those individuals living in tent cities — where they can be further victims of crimes — but to bring them in and meet their needs. "If you take Catholic Charities out of the city of Lorain tomorrow, the pain will be felt immediately," he said. "... If we go away, if the narrative gets too (deliberate) against Catholic Charities, there will be serious issues in the community we serve. We're here to be part of the solution, we don't want to be part of the problem." The town hall was not a back-and-forth discussion. Attendees submitted questions via written notecards, and Williams posed selected questions. In a Facebook post and subsequent messages with The Chronicle-Telegram, town hall attendee and neighborhood resident Sophia Hernandez-Ortiz expressed further frustration with Tuesday's event. In a public post, she felt residents were not heard, and instead only the "soft questions" made it through to the panelists. "Jim Mullen from Catholic Charities kept telling us how much the city 'needs' them and how we'd be hurting without them," she wrote. "Look, I appreciate the warming shelters and food pantries they provide … they can provide those without the shelter that's causing so many problems." She questioned the shelter's need compared to its impact on nearby businesses and the neighborhood. In a message to The Chronicle, she said her husband owned the couple's home before they got married and lived in the neighborhood before St. Elizabeth Center moved to Caroline Avenue. "Kids used to ride bikes and play outside," she wrote. "Now, you don't see kids anywhere because it is not safe. We don't even have trick or treat here." She said the shelter needs to be in a rural area to prevent its residents from loitering in neighboring yards or panhandling at local businesses. At the end of Tuesday's session, Bradley said the town hall was a first step and pledged additional panels with business owners and residents. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.