Plans to build a center for homeless women have been halted due to protests. | Pixabay
Plans to build a center for homeless women have been halted due to protests. | Pixabay
Hennepin County's plan for an emergency women's homeless shelter have been stopped due to Willard-Hay neighborhood residents protesting the idea.
The building planned to be used for the center has been empty since 2005, with many hoping it would turn into a youth center, CBS Minnesota reported. But when plans came out that the county planned to use it for a women's homeless center, residents in the area weren't happy with the idea.
Residents have said they are upset with the plan, because they weren't asked what they thought would be best to put in the building.
But Lisa Clemons, with A Mother's Love, said residents' voices were heard.
“We knocked on over 700 doors. We talked to people on the street, we got petitions signed by people in the community saying what they want in their community, so we let their voices be heard,” Clemons told CBS Minnesota.
But residents aren't done fighting and many are still showing interest in opening a youth center in the building.
“Community over here, they know what they need, and they know what they want, and that is the way that it should work. That’s the only way it's going to work. We don’t need the other red tape,” Kelly Jo Felder, with the Minneapolis School Board, told CBS Minnesota.
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