BRUNSWICK, Ga. — People in Brunswick are concerned about a recent string of violent attacks involving homeless people.
Monday, a homeless man was robbed and cut with a machete by two other homeless people.
The Brunswick News said it was the fourth attack on a homeless person in five weeks.
At Tuesday night's city commission meeting, people voiced their concerns about the violence.
Several said it stemmed from The Well, a center that offers resources for homeless people.
"The Well should not be a safe harbor for criminals intended or not perhaps The Well should be required to provide security if it is allowed to remain open," Brunswick resident, Debbie Brown, said.
Others defended The Well and said it's not contributing to the uptick in violence.
"I would note that eliminating or moving The Well is not necessarily [going] to move away any people that have problems with mental health or physical health or criminal activity. It will simply eliminate or make more difficult resources that they in fact need very badly," a man said during public comment.
The city commission discussed a drafted ordinance that would require a new business or non-profit receive approval before establishing itself in the city.
Which has not been the case for non-profits, such as The Well.
"There was no process by which those facilities had to come before our commission to be approved," Brunswick Mayor, Cosby Johnson, said.
Mayor Johnson said the ordinance allows the city to ensure a partnership exists between organizations and the city to ensure they are operating with the city's safety in mind.
The mayor also announced additional measures to help curb violence, including allocating city funds to board up 50 homes in what he called "hot spot areas."
"The reason I bring this up is there's been a lot of discussion about The Well but several of the instances that we've seen of violence did not happen at The Well they happened with people coming out of abandoned properties and attacking people moving through our cities," Johnson said.
Johnson said the city is also looking into hiring additional staff trained to deal with mental health and domestic disputes. Johnson said these people would ride along with police officers.
Longtime Brunswick resident, Gayle Clements, liked what she heard from the city commission.
She spoke during public comment, but before she spoke, she taped a drawing of Downtown Brunswick to the dais.
The picture shows a couple buildings crashing into the water. Underneath is the phrase, 'Brunswick Georgia...Slide, Sliding, Slidden.'
"I think this would make a nice bumper sticker or door decal to put on a window of your car or business so it will remind people when they see this, they'll see we don't want to be slidden we want to fix this we want to work on this we're going to fix this," Clements said.
The city commission also extended a moratorium on the creation and expansion of a homeless shelter at a site where a shelter doesn't exist.
"We've got a contract on a piece of property we can expand our reach and our services. things we cannot do at The Well we can't provide nigh time services at all. We need more shelter we need more services we need primarily though our interest though is trying to educate the public this is a behavioral health issue," Wright Culpepper, Executive Director of Faith Works, which operates The Well, said.
Culpepper said he wanted to see the city lift the moratorium so The Well could expand and serve more homeless people. But, the city is sticking to its comprehensive approach.
"I think the one thing we've learned from this experience as a city is that when these decisions about wraparound services are made in a silo than the problems that come out of them are singular in nature," Johnson said.