DULUTH – A car-living program for the homeless here has operated without controversy for two years downtown.

This year, a plan to move Safe Bay to a residential neighborhood in the back lot of a church sent some neighbors into a tailspin. On Tuesday, the city's Planning Commission unanimously approved a city-recommended permit for the Kenwood neighborhood site at Vineyard Church, amid an angry, jeering crowd.

"I don't understand why we have to have a designated area to park cars for people to sleep in," said Greg Hill, who lives near the church. "What you're offering is enabling people. You're not helping anyone."

The Safe Bay program stems from Stepping On Up, a coalition of Duluth organizations taking on chronic homelessness. More than 700 people were counted as homeless in 2024, in a city of about 87,000. Duluth has only 200 shelter beds, and the city's warming shelter operates only seasonally. Safe Bay is an overnight program that typically runs from April through October.

With counterparts across the country, Safe Bay has used the parking lot of the Damiano Center, where registered guests can shower and sleep, as overnight staff monitor their safety. Its users are often victims of domestic violence, and people working or going to school or in addiction recovery. Its proponents say it works, and large percentages of its users have found housing. But an expansion of the Chum homeless shelter means people who would normally sleep there will sleep at the Damiano Center during construction.

Chum wanted to avoid congestion, and separate the two populations. Vineyard Church was willing, and had most of the needed amenities, including restrooms and showers.

There's a children's play area and space to walk dogs, and "it's wooded, quiet and private," said Joel Kilgour, coordinator of Stepping On Up. "And vehicle living provides more dignity and security" than sleeping on the streets or on a shelter mat.

But neighbors whose properties border the back lot have fought the permit, picking apart the nonprofit's responses to questions, parsing city code and accusing officials of bending the rules to accommodate Safe Bay.

The type of fencing to block sight of the parking lot has been a point of contention, with neighbors wanting something more permanent than the proposed temporary screen.

Neighbor Jessica Thiel said that with what's proposed, "there will be no buffer and no screening of the noise, car headlights, potential trespassing issues and many other negative impacts that would instead be mitigated if a dense urban screen was installed."

Stepping On Up says it can't afford a permanent fence, but it has accommodated other concerns the neighborhood has raised. He noted some neighbors have said they will volunteer for Safe Bay, Kilgour said.

"I understand that new things can cause anxiety, especially if you chose a neighborhood because it was quiet and out of the way," he said. "Frankly, I don't think anybody in the neighborhood is going to notice that it's there unless they have direct line of sight to the back parking lot."

The program is capped at 50 cars, but its highest number has been 22.

The opposition speaks to a larger community theme about development, said Commissioner Chris Adatte.

"Obsessing over these details and serving up these roadblocks really thwarts away a lot of investment," he said. "That really hurts growth."

At the Tuesday meeting, former Police Chief Mike Tusken said that "NIMBY is a real thing," and he understands that some people don't want certain things in their backyard.

But Chum has a good relationship with law enforcement and will willingly work out issues, he said.

Services like Safe Bay are "invaluable" to a population that is disproportionately victimized, Tusken said.

The Planning Commission spent an hour trying to interpret what qualifies as a fence to potentially add a permit condition, ultimately voting to allow it with language intact.

Its decision is likely to be appealed to the City Council, but the program is now free to operate at the church. The permit will be reviewed for renewal annually.