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Opponents of a proposed homeless shelter will ask the Town Council tonight to maintain a town limit on shelters to 25 beds.

The current cap would rule out the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services’ plans to replace its downtown men’s shelter with a 52-bed shelter on UNC-Chapel Hill-owned land along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Homestead Road.

Last week neighbors published an analysis showing the current shelter at 100 W. Rosemary St. was the site of the second largest number of arrests in the past six years, behind only University Mall.

The 155 arrest total was similar to that of other downtown locations such as the University Square shopping center. The statistics show where suspects were apprehended, not where crimes took place. The shelter ranked 12th for criminal incidents, behind several apartment complexes, shopping centers, office buildings and both high schools.

On Sunday, Laurie Tucker, the IFC’s residential services director, told about 100 people at United Church of Chapel Hill that the shelter makes safety a top priority. The church would be the new shelter’s closest neighbor.

Shelter staff already can do criminal background checks, search residents’ belongings and have a hand-held metal detector. “If you come in with something, and I find it, it’s mine,” Tucker said.

The new shelter, if approved, would continue to let men sleep on the floor in freezing weather. But it would emphasize longer-term housing for men who get drug and alcohol counseling, file disability claims or seek jobs.

The IFC soup kitchen, now in the shelter downtown, would move to the IFC’s headquarters in Carrboro to merge with the agency’s food pantry and give residents of the new shelter space and privacy.

Given its current location, it’s hard to measure the shelter’s impact on crime without examining its residents’ criminal records. But IFC executive director Chris Moran has declined to identify residents. Though 100 W. Rosemary St. shows up on police reports, homeless criminals sometimes tell police that’s their address even if they don’t live there.

Police Chief Brian Curran said the shelter’s location, along with its soup kitchen serving all sorts of hungry people, makes it a likely spot to arrest petty criminals, whether or not they live there.

Moran released statistics last week showing only 20 criminal charges filed last year against clients staying at the shelter at the time. A handful were for violent crimes; most were for misdemeanor property or drug crimes.

“The great majority of people who reside with us are not dangerous,” Moran said.

But for some neighbors, any more crime is too much. They say neighborhoods nearest Homestead Park, on either side of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, already have the highest crime rates of Chapel Hill suburban neighborhoods.