CHAPEL HILL - A new homeless shelter off Homestead Road would move men to longer-term housing but continue to open to others on cold nights, an IFC official said Sunday.

Laurie Tucker, residential services director for the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services, told about 100 people at the United Church of Chapel Hill the new shelter would primarily offer transitional housing. Men who get drug, alcohol and mental health counseling, file disability claims and/or look for jobs would be admitted.

The two-story shelter would have 52 beds on a second floor, made up of two 10-bed dorm rooms, quads and double rooms.

The first floor would contain offices and a multi-purpose room that could be opened to sleep men in extreme weather. The current shelter at 100 W. Rosemary St. has 30 beds but has slept up to 81 on "white flag nights," she said.

The new shelter will not house the community kitchen, Tucker said. The IFC wants to move that to the agency's headquarters on Carrboro's Main Street to merge it with the food pantry.

"I know there's a lot of rumors the kitchen is going to sneak into the new facility," Tucker said. "That would be over my dead body."

The IFC building at 110 W. Main St. is not zoned for a community kitchen, Carrboro Planning Director Roy Williford said Monday. The town would need to rezone the property or modify its existing use to permit the kitchen, he said.

Neighbors of the proposed new shelter location released a survey last week showing the shelter was the site of numerous arrests.

Tucker said the shelter's three staff members and volunteers make safety a priority.

"I am a tough person," Tucker said. "If you're in our shelter and you want our help you have to answer tough questions."

Staff regularly search belongings and can do criminal background checks as well as body checks with a hand held metal detector.

"If you come in with something and I find it, it's mine," Tucker said.

Tucker emphasized that the current shelter has already been moving toward longer-term stays for men who are making progress. Even some men who come in for a night end up staying longer once they see they can get help.

"The men really want help," she said. "They just don't know how to ask for help. They just don't know how to look for help."

But Tucker repeated what IFC director Chris Moran has also said: that once the shelter moves, it will be local governments' job to help those left behind.

"We are no longer going to be an emergency shelter," she said. 'The county is going to have to do something about the people who are left on the streets."

"That's the biggest issue that's going to be facing the county and the town of Chapel Hill and town of Carrboro."