New site for New Day Intake Center on Old Cleveland Road

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- The City of South Bend has been planning for a low-barrier homeless intake shelter for quite some time, but the question is, where would it go? ABC57 was the first to confirm the city is eyeing a new potential location on Old Cleveland Road.

Motels4Now started four years ago to address the rising number of unhoused people in South Bend, particularly the tent cities that popped up in the city during the pandemic.

"We've made the most of an old motel that's in rough shape," said Sheila McCarthy. "We've known about a need for a low-barrier emergency shelter for a very long time."

McCarthy will be the executive director of what will be called the New Day Intake Center.

"In the last two years, the number of unsheltered individuals in Indiana has doubled, more than doubled. But here in South Bend, it has not," she said. "It's stayed the same because we're able to bring in hundreds of people every year."

However, there hasn’t been any agreement on where such a low-barrier homeless shelter should be located.

"There's a lot of demonization of people without homes who are much more likely to be the victims of crimes, not the perpetrators of crimes," McCarthy said. "I think the impact on neighboring businesses is not anywhere near the impact on businesses downtown when people are without a place to live, and sleeping in doorways, and digging through trash cans, and bothering customers."

Initially, the city proposed a 5-acre spot on Bendix Drive— to great public uproar. County leaders even created a task force to find an alternate location, so far bearing no fruit. But now, the city may have an alternate location on Old Cleveland Road.

"I want to be compassionate; I think we all want to be compassionate. Everybody deserves some form of housing, somewhere to stay, some form of protection. That's fine, but my family's no different," said Adrian Long.

Long would become neighbors with the New Day Intake Center if this site is approved and purchased.

"It's going to affect us every day when we're out here just trying to live our lives," Long said. "I got small kids, right? Real small kids."

"There are soccer fields close by around the corner, and those have thousands of kids there every summer," said County Councilmember Joe Thomas.

Thomas does not have an official stance on the new proposed location, but he tells me he has concerns.

"I know they've been looking at alternative sites. We would like to see them closer to the city because the services are closer to the city," he said. "The current location is there. I would hope they would think about looking at that current location, fix that up."

ABC57 confirmed the City of South Bend is in negotiations with the owner of the 15 acres of land but there is no purchase agreement yet.

New Day is taking the opportunity to re-launch their fundraising campaign. They've raised about $12 million of their $16 million goal.

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