To the editor:

Without regard to the paramount issue of safety, moving the Kentucky Street homeless shelter to 31st Street would require its new neighbors to pay tens of thousands of dollars in lost home equity. The amount paid by residents neighboring the 31st Street site would far exceed the mere $50,000 the Lawrence Community Shelter is presently requesting the city to pay.

Regardless of one’s views on how to address homelessness, it should be indisputable that a new neighborhood homeless shelter will significantly drop surrounding property values. Placing a disproportionate financial burden on any one part of the city to address citywide homelessness is clearly wrong.

I can say with confidence that property owners surrounding the 31st Street property have and will continue to do much for those in need. If those of us in the neighborhood of the proposed 31st Street homeless shelter location do “dodge a bullet” (phrasing used by Commissioner Rundle, June 27), we have no further duty to the homeless community than any other citizen. The fact that a small part of the community is threatening to take a good part our hard-earned “American dream” does not alter that fact.

James Bachert,

Lawrence