200 Jam Council Hearing for House of Yahweh Expansion

The three-year debate over House of Yahweh’s plans for a new building in Lawndale hit its emotional height Thursday night as about 200 people jammed elbow-to-elbow into the City Council chambers for a raucous three-hour public hearing.

Supporters of the soup kitchen, who appeared to outnumber opponents of the new building, groaned when the council said it needed more information before ruling on whether to let House of Yahweh go ahead with its building plans on the lot across from City Hall. The public hearing will continue March 7.

The hearing drew City Hall’s largest crowd in more than a decade, many said, and less than half of the well-wishers and detractors who squeezed into the council chambers were able to find a seat. Dozens were pressed against the back wall. One couple had to push their way out to catch their breath.

The audience applauded frequently and became unruly when Mary Ellen Larsen, the sister of the woman who appealed the building plans, deridingly called the soup kitchen “House of Ya-Ya” and accused it of “generating millions” for its own benefit.

“Why don’t you sit down?” someone shouted from the audience. “Shut up!” someone else implored.

In November, the Planning Commission gave approval for the nonprofit organization to erect a two-story addition to its building at Burin Avenue and 147th Street.

That approval was challenged by Margaret Rinnert, who owns a house next door. In her appeal she wrote that the soup kitchen is “a negative influence on the city and neighborhood children.” She also accused House of Yahweh of having deplorable sanitary conditions and insufficient parking, and said it is holding down property values in the area.

At the hearing, she was backed by eight speakers who said they no longer use the Lawndale Library or shuttle service in the civic center because they fear the soup kitchen’s patrons, and urged the council not permit the new building.

Other opponents blamed House of Yahweh for crime and men urinating on neighborhood lawns, all the while saying they believed in what the charity is trying to do for the poor and homeless.

About two dozen supporters of the new building also spoke, with several saying that the new building would alleviate rather than add to the problems. The building--which would provide showers, bathrooms and an enclosed patio--would enable the charity to serve its clientele better, they said. Though the new building would provide more office and storage space, House of Yahweh has no plans to expand its dining room, which attracts the most people, said Sister Michele Morris, the agency’s executive director.

Lawndale resident Ronald Morrissette said the new building should go up as planned. “It really doesn’t matter where you put it, someone’s going to be opposed to it,” he said. “My personal opinion is I’m very proud to have House of Yahweh located in the civic center because to me it says the city cares.”

The soup kitchen makes up only a fraction of the services the charity offers, said Morris, adding that it is unfair to blame the charity for the city’s homeless problem. Other services include a grocery and clothing give-away program, a thrift shop and counseling referral. The charity also has five trailers elsewhere in the city, and refers people to them on an emergency basis.

Several critics spoke about the threat they said they feel from some of the homeless.

One woman said she had to cut down her pine tree to stop people from defecating and urinating in front of her house. Another woman said she felt so threatened by the homeless men and women who flock there daily for meals that she had become “a prisoner of my own home.”

Dell Schoonover, who has lived on Burin Avenue more than 25 years, said a small group of homeless men who have been living in the alley behind his home have turned the area into “a war zone.” He said he has called the Sheriff’s Department at least a dozen times in the last six months with complaints about the men drinking and fighting. “It’s constant hassle all the time,” he said.

The testimony that drew the most reaction came from Burin Avenue resident Martha Garcia, who said that two years ago her daughter saw a girl being sexually molested by a man she later saw standing in line outside the soup kitchen.

The Sheriff’s Department, after doing computer checks Friday, was unable to find any record of the incident.

Lt. Tony Denis said that while deputies frequently receive complaints about people loitering, urinating or sleeping on the grass outside City Hall, “whether they’re attracted to go there by the House of Yahweh, we simply don’t know.” The northwest quadrant of the city, which includes House of Yahweh, had the second-highest number of serious crimes during fiscal 1989-1990, he said.

After the hearing, Morris called some of the comments about crime “inflammatory” and invited opponents of the new building to drop by the soup kitchen to meet her patrons and see how well-behaved they are.

“Let’s take urination,” Morris said. “You go to any city in any alley. Go behind any liquor store and you’ll find it there . . . I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but what I am saying is (does it happen) on a consistent basis?’ ”

The hearing this week is the culmination of the House of Yahweh’s efforts to expand its services to the homeless and poor.

The charity first won approval to build a new facility in August, 1988. After weathering a series of public hearings encompassing many of the same issues aired Thursday, it celebrated its groundbreaking in a ceremony attended by Mayor Harold E. Hofmann in April, 1990.

Just a few days after workers had begun to dig the footings for the new building, construction was halted when city planning officials discovered the city had overlooked landscaping and setback requirements in the civic center area.

After the Planning Commission and City Council both refused to grant a variance to the requirement that new buildings sit behind 10 feet of landscaping, House of Yahweh submitted new plans. Those plans were approved by the Planning Commission in late November; the appeal by Rinnert was filed Dec. 7.