Safe Harbor Volunteer Speaks Out

A former volunteer at Safe Harbor of Grand Traverse asked to leave the organization last week after criticizing its proposed homeless shelter is now preparing his own alternate proposal he hopes TC commissioners will consider.

Michael D. Ullman, a national development and program evaluation specialist with the United States Veterans Initiative, was asked to leave Northern Lakes Community Church on February 20 when he showed up to volunteer for an evening shift. Ullman had been volunteering with the organization since last fall. The church is one of 23 in Safe Harbor's network that provide emergency overnight shelter for the homeless on a rotating basis during winter months.

Earlier in the week, Ullman had spoken out at community informational meetings against Safe Harbor's request to utilize a 9,600-square-foot, city-owned building at 517 Wellington Street (formerly home to a local Boys & Girls Club chapter) as a permanent emergency homeless shelter. The organization says it has seen an 85 percent increase in user demand since 2012 and is exceeding the capacity of many of its churches.

"We know we can't continue to run with the numbers getting as high as they are in our church network," Safe Harbor spokesman Peter Starkel tells The Ticker. "And we need a centralized location with offices and meeting space."

But Ullman counters that large emergency shelters such as the one proposed by Safe Harbor are inefficient, difficult to fund and can “institutionalize homelessness.” He'd like to see Safe Harbor concentrate instead on reducing demand by finding housing for its 20 or so “chronically homeless” users, some of whom have used the program's shelters for months or years, as well as placing a capacity limit at participating churches.

Ullman's alternate proposal encourages local homeless service providers to prioritize the chronically homeless when distributing housing vouchers; and utilizes city funding to create housing assistance for the community's most vulnerable members.

“If you want people to live in an emergency shelter – OK, build it,” says Ullman. “But I think we can do better than putting our community's mentally ill on a mat at night and kicking them out at 7am. There are better alternatives for the city's resources.”

In a February 20 email to City Commissioner Jim Carruthers, Starkel questioned Ullman's motives and his credibility, stating “we can't verify any of his stated credentials...we cannot confirm any of his work references.” He concluded that “(Ullman) might not be legitimate,” and told The Ticker Ullman "used bad research to build a case against us that isn't true."

Ullman claims his "only motive is helping to find housing for those very ill individuals who need it," and says Starkel is trying to "discredit" him because he opposes the project. The Ticker subsequently verified that Ullman received a Ph.D in social welfare from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2009 and was employed by/affiliated with organizations listed on his resume.

The debate over how best to address the city's homelessness problem isn't one confined to Ullman, Starkel or Safe Harbor – it's a larger community issue, says Traverse City Mayor Michael Estes. He notes the city commission will consider the topic in more depth at its March 24 study session, including further review of the Safe Harbor proposal.

“This is an extremely large issue...and I think the city has dropped the ball on the issue of housing, not just for the homeless but for other groups, too,” says Estes. “But I don't think we can just jump into converting buildings into makeshift structures. We need to think this through...and we need to get the townships and the county involved in the process, too."

"I'm hoping we can take steps this year to begin to address these issues," Estes adds.