Whenever Dung Tran, the owner of Beechmont restaurant The StrEatery Food Hall, pulled up outside Louisville’s shelters to provide meals to people experiencing homelessness, he wondered how they would manage if shelters ran out of space during harsh winters.
That prompted him to open his business’ doors as a warming shelter during the winter storm this week.
“I wanted to take the risk of trying to make sure we help people,” he said.
Tran said he thought they were cleared after an inspection by the health department on Tuesday. Soon after, people started pouring in to get shelter, meals, warm clothing and resources. Two days later, Tran got a call from the Louisville Fire Department. He assumed they needed help directing people to get shelter. Instead, he was told to shut down the emergency shelter and received a violation notice Thursday.
Tran offered to help people who were staying at The StrEatery get into a shelter, but most didn’t want to, he said.
“They felt safe. We gained their trust, and now we just broke it by telling them that they had to leave,” he said.
The StrEatery has a A-2 Assembly use group permit for establishments that serve food and drink. Tran said he was unaware he needed a change of occupancy permit to use his business as an emergency shelter, even temporarily.
Louisville Metro Codes and Regulations administers those permits. The permit is required when the intended use of a building switches, which means it has to comply with a different set of code requirements. The application can be submitted online and requires detailed floor plans, followed by inspections by Codes and Regulations.
Kevin Trager, spokesperson for Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s office, said the city has a list of approved overnight emergency shelters and warming centers.
“It’s important we take necessary steps for public safety and fire prevention when opening an overnight emergency shelter. If someone is interested in opening a temporary overnight emergency shelter, they should call 311 to get more information about a temporary permit,” he said in an email.
Codes and Regulations approved Sojourn Church Carlisle, 3548 Taylor Blvd., for a permit allowing it to operate as a temporary emergency shelter, Director Richard Price said in an emailed statement Friday evening. It's about two miles from The Streatery.
Amanda Mills, the founder of service provider Southend Street Angels, helped Tran at The StrEatery with the shelter. She said she’s figuring out how the process works but hasn’t received any help or guidance from the city agencies.
“The message I have to city officials is: We want to do things right. We need you to show us how to do it correctly, and we want to be able to work together, because we get more accomplished when we unite than when we're divided,” she said.
Tran said the opacity around the process can discourage businesses that want to help people experiencing homelessness.
“And everytime [businesses] try to help, when they try to do something, they get the red tape and feel like, ‘This isn't worth our time anymore, like we can’t do this. And every time we try to do something, they stop us,” he said.
In downtown Louisville, Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral is currently hosting a Room in The Inn pilot program providing temporary overnight shelter until the end of February.
Rev. Matthew Bradley said he had worked on the program for months and planned to launch Jan. 6. On Dec. 27, he got a call from the Fire Department following news coverage of the program and learned he needed a change of use permit for the church to operate as a temporary shelter.
“That's when we started sort of sending follow up emails, asking questions, trying to figure out what the lay of the land was, trying to negotiate whether or not we needed to file for a permit to be licensed as a homeless shelter, which ultimately we did not,” he said.
Bradley said he worked closely with the city’s construction review division and received approval on Jan. 3. The church opened its doors for the program on Wednesday. He’s grateful to the city agencies for supporting him through the process, but said he wouldn’t have been able to figure it out on his own.
“I've done this in other communities where this wasn't required, and right or wrong, I made the assumption that, since churches have historically sheltered people as a part of the ministry of being a church, that having a permit to operate as a church would cover this since, to me, that's an inherent aspect of the ministry of the church,” he said.
He wants the city to work with business owners and other people who want to open temporary shelters or pop-up shelters, especially during extreme weather.
“I don't think anybody's trying to pull a fast one and trying to get away with something,” he said.
A roundtable every month where people could propose community solutions like temporary shelters and get more information on how to navigate the process would be helpful, he said.
There were more than 1,000 people in Louisville experiencing homelessness in January 2024, according to an annual count by the Coalition for the Homeless. This year’s count has not yet taken place.
