Courthouse Square Troubles

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The widows frequently lapse into social services jargon, saying that their troubled and troublesome neighbors need "more help in living independently" than they're receiving. But, occasionally, residents' outrage breaks through. Speaking to First Ward council member Sandi Smith, one compared Courthouse Square--unfavorably--to the Delonis Center homeless shelter. Unlike Delonis, she pointed out, no one turns away drunks at Courthouse Square's canopied entrance. "We're becoming the 'wet' shelter," she complained.

Another compares Courthouse Square to another downtown residence that was created to house independent people but ended up filled with social services clients before it was demolished. She laments, "We're the new Y."

This wasn't what the city had in mind when it practically gave the building to an out-of-town developer in 1995. The intention, recalls former mayor Ingrid Sheldon, was to provide safe downtown living for seniors with modest incomes. "It wasn't meant to be a haven for the mentally and emotionally challenged," she says.

Originally a hotel, the building reverted to the government in the mid-1990s, after its last owner piled up more unpaid taxes than the building was worth. Though developers were interested in converting it to condos, city council voted to sell it to a company called First Centrum. Then based in Lansing and now headquartered in Virginia, First Centrum paid less than $25,000 for the former hotel and then used federal low-income housing tax credits to renovate the building.