BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Brunswick's city commission voted to pass a 65-day closure of The Well, a daytime homeless shelter.
"We've just had lots of problems and concerns for a long time and just the fact the place The Well is located in, it's not large enough to take care of. It's just all over the city," Brunswick City Commissioner, John Cason, said.
"We're all concerned that the people be taken care of, every single person on this commission that sees what's happening and Brunswick, Georgia is concerned and wants to do a better job than what we've doing in the past," Cason added.
Cason said notice will go to The Well Thursday.
Mayor Cosby Johnson asked The Well to temporarily close its doors days ago, after a recent string of violent attacks involving homeless people.
Rev. Wright Culpepper, executive director of Faithworks Ministry, which runs the day shelter, obliged.
"Things have been simmering for a long time. Four acts of violence right around this area conducted, as far as the accused, are homeless people but not homeless people connected to The Well," Culpepper said.
"It [temporary closure] gives us a chance to let things cool down, gives us a chance to plan on what things might look like when we open back up and to look long range where we were already looking long range of what was going to come next anyway," he added.
The city commission also passed an ordinance regulating homeless shelters so they can be enforced by city codes.
The Well previously did not have a partnership with the city.
Lucy Brous and Katherine Kinstle are business owners a block away from The Well and have had attacks happen near their businesses.
Both believe The Well is a problem.
"I'd like to see a coalition of all the entities that have to do with homelessness. Drug addiction, mental illness, law enforcement, food pantry, overnight shelter anyone that has anything to do with helping the homeless," Brous said.
"I'd like for them to move it into the county so that they're not in public view. I don't mind a Well that's managed well, like Lucy said, but I do mind something that we have down here that's getting worse," Kinstle said.