Homeless shelter opens near Seattle Center playground, Space Needle

Feet from where children come to play at the heart of the Seattle Center, the city has carved out space for 75 overnight shelter beds.

Related: Seattle has ‘culture block’ when it comes to the homeless crisis

A new place for homeless men to sleep from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. opened Thursday night and will close in mid-April.

“I think it’s too close to the kids,” said Cherrie Spell who works at the Seattle Center. “I’ve come here all my life and safety is first always. I think it’s a big issue with the parents. Shelters need to be somewhere, but not here at the Center.”

However, organizers with non-profit Compass Housing Alliance said the shelter is important.

The same 75 beds that now occupy an unused room under the monorail station were at previous a location on Capitol Hill.

The city took that old space to use for other homeless services.

In return, the city offered the new space for use until mid-April.

Some people KIRO 7 spoke to believe a shelter in a place that’s so representative of Seattle speaks to the homeless crisis at hand.

“We’re going to have to be flexible in our feelings, and our own needs and own space,” said Michael Schwab, who was attending a meeting of concerned citizens at the Seattle Center Thursday night.

“But we have a tremendous problem with homelessness, and we have to find the spaces.”

Shelter organizers insist there is no possibility of the shelter remaining open beyond mid-April because there are other plans for the space in late spring and during the summer.