Protect Flagstaff's Youth

The City of Flagstaff decided to allow bids for a year-round homeless shelter on Industrial Drive to replace the six-month shelter currently in place on Phoenix Avenue. This new shelter is less than a mile away from Thomas M. Knoles Elementary School and Sinagua High School, is less than one-half mile away from Northland Preparatory Academy, and is across the street from the Flagstaff Aquatic and Multi-Generational Center (the Aquaplex) and the W. L. Gore facility on Fourth Street. This new shelter will only be open during evening hours, thereby forcing the clients of the facility to wander this section of Flagstaff during daytime hours, posing a threat to children at all three schools as well as to those visiting the Aquaplex.

Due to the proposed Industrial Drive shelter's proximity to the aforementioned buildings and due to the 124 police calls to the area of the shelter on Phoenix Avenue during the six months it was open during winter 2008/2009, we, the the undersigned petitioners, object to the opening of a new homeless shelter on Industrial Drive, and respectfully request that the Flagstaff City Council remove Industrial Drive as a shelter site, and search for a replacement site where the shelter's residents are not public safety threats.