Buildings Housing Homeless to Be Torn Down for Bemidji YMCA Project

There is some controversy brewing about the YMCA project in Bemidji, which will begin construction soon and involve the demolition of three abandoned buildings in the Rail Corridor district.

Those buildings are sometimes used as an unregistered shelter for the homeless when all others are full, and project leaders plan for those buildings to be taken down before the year’s end. While some view the buildings as a safety hazard, others often use those buildings, with one sometimes referred to as “The Mansion,” as places of residence for the homeless population in the area.

“[“The Mansion”] ended up becoming housing—temporary housing, temporary shelters, [an] unrestricted, no-barrier shelter,” explained Isabella Schaefer, owner of The Recovery Space in Bemidji.

Schaefer can see the dangers surrounding the buildings themselves, like other officials in the area have claimed.

“There’s no sanitation, there’s no toilets, there’s no running water,” said Reed Olson, Nameless Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director. “It’s a place where people can be victimized. It’s a place where people can overdose.”

“It’s a space that is unsightly, and it is dangerous,” added Schaefer.

However, she believes tearing down those buildings will just create extra barriers for the homeless in the area.

“Folks can’t camp out in the city; we don’t have ordinances that support people being able to camp within city limits,” said Schaefer. “Then you limit yourselves to, ‘If I can’t camp, where am I going to go?'”

And for some, “The Mansion” was their only form of shelter during the June 21 wind storm, where 120 mph winds blew through the streets of Bemidji.

“That building served as safety, that building served as shelter,” Schaefer emphasized. “As damaged as the building got, imagine what it was like to be in the storm and not having a shelter to go to.”

While some officials believe more housing options will help, Schaefer believes more immediate shelters need to be available.

“We know statistically that there’s a lot less housing options than there are citizens,” she stated. “At the same time, if we’re having people sleeping on the streets at our municipal buildings, at abandoned buildings, that immediately tells us we need to have shelter space.”

Schaefer knows a solution will require a lot of time, money, and resources, but believes a collaborative effort from city, county, and other officials can make it happen.

“We know that there are options to be able to do rezoning,” she added. “We know there are options to be able to reallocate different funding options. And I know right now we’re in a lot of budget deficits, and money is something that a lot of us don’t have. We do, however, have spaces that can be repurposed, we have spaces that are forfeited. If we look at tax-deferred land and if we look at spaces that are maybe in ownership of city and county folks, using those spaces and turning into something different.”

A press conference will be held next Tuesday regarding work on the site, where Greater Bemidji Executive Director Dave Hengel and Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince will detail the demolition timeline and announce the first new businesses coming to the Rail Corridor. Lakeland News will be in attendance.