The Shelter Association of Washtenaw County staffs three facilities to support the homeless looking for shelter in Ann Arbor. One building sits in the middle of a flood plane while another was condemned before it became a shelter. The waiting list for a bed exceeds 100 names, and those who sleep in the barracks-like facilities must travel six blocks to receive food at the day-shelter, which attempts to feed 125 people for lunch each day with a kitchen about the size of a cooking area in a studio apartment. The day-shelter, formerly a warehouse, also features health care facilities, in which dirt crumbles from the ceiling as doctors consult their patients.

"Our current facilities are in very bad shape," said Democrat John Hieftje, the incumbent mayor running for re-election. "They're dilapidated buildings not suited for our purpose. The idea is providing a continuum of care to help people move from homelessness to self-sufficiency."

Rectifying the problems in helping the homeless has often sparked heated discussions among city officials. To provide better care for the homeless in Ann Arbor, the city, in conjunction with Washtenaw County, will construct a new state-of-the-art shelter on Huron Street, projected for completion next November. While the county will oversee the construction of the facility, the city has donated large sums of money to supplement the project.

One homeless person, who wished to remain anonymous, said that although he knew the city offered facilities, he had substantial difficulty in registering for a bed.

"They're so hard to deal with it's a waste of time," he said. "I have a disability and a drug problem. If you're not completely clean when you go in, they won't take you."

Jimmy Lee Rogers, who said he had been homeless for several years, indicated that he had similar trouble trying to obtain a bed.

"They're all full, and you can't stay down there if you aren't clean," he said. "They turn away a lot of people because they smoke weed."

Nevertheless, Rogers said that living on the streets was not difficult.

"It's easy for me. I've been walking with the Lord. It's easy," he said.

The new building will feature expanded kitchen and health care facilities, course offerings in computer use and commercial kitchen training, and private rooms with closeable doors that will accommodate four people. The shelter will also provide more extensive case management to help attendants find work and cope with mental or drug problems.

"This building will allow us to provide services more effectively," said Beth Bashert, the fund development director of the Shelter Association. "Given proper support, the chance that people will become stable and housed is much more likely."

In the bid for city offices this election, many candidates have pointed to the new shelter's potential to help the homeless more effectively, yet maintain that the city should continue in additional efforts.

Hieftje has emphasized not only the new shelter in his campaign but also his Loose Change for Real Change Program, which takes small change donations at local business to fund the city's shelters and other programs that help alleviate the homeless. Hieftje said he intended the program as an alternative to giving panhandlers money on the street, which he said only funds the addictions, depriving them of stability.

Democrat Jean Carlberg, running for re-election to her council seat in Ward 3, asserted that providing more affordable housing would prove the most effective means of helping the homeless. She pointed to the council's establishment of a land trust that allows people of low income to purchase a house without the cost of the land itself.

"The shelter is one piece of it, the other is getting affordable housing built," Carlberg said. "The problem needs to be pursued much more comprehensively."

Other candidates, however, believe the new shelter will at least temporarily suffice in helping the homeless, and the city should examine the situation further before spending more tax dollars to address it.

"The construction of Huron Street is pretty significant," said Republican Jeff DeBoer, Carlberg's opponent in Ward 3. "If there's a greater problem, we need to hear public opinion."

Republican Marcia Higgins, a current member of the City Council and Hieftje's opponent in the mayoral election, was skeptical that the city could entirely solve the problem of homelessness.

"Can we completely alleviate homelessness? I don't think so," she said. "Ironic as it may seem, there are people who prefer that lifestyle."

She added that the greater responsibility for helping the homeless lies in the state government, which regulates the occupancy of mental hospitals.