City Walk homeless shelter in danger of closing after judge does not block vacate order

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - A judge decided Tuesday not to block the City of Tallahassee from enforcing a vacate order on the City Walk Urban Mission, and the homeless shelter could be in danger of shutting its doors.

Renee Miller, the shelter pastor and director, said she thinks the ruling leaves the door open for the city to evict them.

“It has everything to do with luxury townhomes going in on the corner of Mary’s and Mahan,” Miller said.

Both the City of Tallahassee and City Walk Urban Mission Shelter have petitioned the court for injunctions against each other.

In court documents, the city lists a history of issues that it believes should keep the shelter from operating, including what the city calls a lack of proper permitting, facilities, government oversight and “three police death investigations.”

Miller acknowledges the deaths, but she contends they did not happen because of a lack of care or from fire code violations.

Two of the cases happened just a few days apart, and all bodies were found days after they died, according court documents.

City Walk and the City of Tallahassee have been at odds for years, facing disputes over issues such as permitting.

Most recently, in March the city fire marshal ordered the shelter to stop residence operations. The next day, the order was paused until Tuesday’s hearing.

Miller said coming up to fire code will cost $100,000 alone, not counting the change of use permits.

WCTV reached out to the City of Tallahassee for comment on this story and is awaiting a response.

Chasity Maynard contributed to this report.

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