By Eric Curl
Feb. 20, 2025 – The Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) on Tuesday approved a special-use permit requested to expand downtown’s Inner City Night Shelter, a facility that has provided emergency housing and services to homeless individuals since 1983.
The 8-2 vote by the advisory board recommends approval for the shelter at 124 Arnold St. to expand its footprint to two adjoining parcels and enhance its capacity to serve those in need by providing space for additional beds, job training, drug counseling, and mental health services, according to the project’s representatives. The special-use permit will next have to go before the Savannah City Council for final approval, however.
The subject parcels include an undeveloped lot, and a 2-story residential structure built around 1900 that may be retained, according to architect Brian Felder, of Felder & Associates.
Edward Morrow, MPC’s Director of Development Services and Special Projects, said that the shelter’s location falls within the downtown commercial zone and aligns with the city’s Plan 2040 initiative, which aims to increase supportive housing for special needs populations. Morrow said that MPC staff recommended approval of the expansion, emphasizing the city’s growing need for shelters that serve individuals who are homelessness, mentally ill, disabled and in drug recovery.
Yvonne Pryor, Executive Director of Inner City Night Shelter, said that space constraints have forced the shelter to prioritize emergency housing over additional supportive services, a situation that has been exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Every inch in the building is being utilized for emergency shelter, so we haven’t been able to offer any additional services that we would like to offer,” Pryor. “We could use space for classrooms, for drug counseling, mental health counseling, and of course doing all of that, referring it out to other agencies that would be able to come into our facility to perform those services.”
While the proposal received support from most of the board, Commissioners Joseph Welch and Jeff Notrica voted against the expansion after raising concerns about safety, the shelter’s impact on the area, and the facility’s proximity to a new apartment complex across the street that caters to Savannah College of Art and Design students.
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Notrica asked about the shelter’s policy on housing registered sex offenders and individuals with criminal backgrounds. Pryor said that while the shelter does serve ex-offenders, strict guidelines are in place.
“We have everybody, and as far as the sex offenders that are there, we have a very strong relationship with probation and parole … ” Pryor said. “Any sex offender that is there must be on active probation, which means that the probation officer can come at any time.”
The new facility will also maintain the 7 p.m. curfew, she added.
Commissioner Welch’s concerns extended to the condition of the shelter, describing it as “run-down.” In response, Pryor said that the city of Savannah recently invested $500,000 in building improvements.
Jennifer DuLong, CEO and executive director of the Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless, voiced her support for the project during the meeting.
“Inner City Night Shelter is the only shelter in our community that’s considered a low barrier shelter, meaning that a person can be an active substance use disorder, and they can get an emergency bed,” Dulong said. “If Ms. Pryor has a bed available by Inner City Night Shelter, it is a critical need that is unfulfilled in our community right now.”
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