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First, the news: Huntington City Mission Executive Director Mitch Webb said this week construction could be halted on the Missionòòò½ÊÓƵ™s low-barrier shelter while the search is underway to find a location outside the downtown area for it.

Low-barrier shelters have minimal entry requirements. They are targeted to unsheltered individuals who cannot or will not enter the Mission due to not meeting its requirements, suffering from substance use disorder, or severe mental illness.

Farrell has said he supports the idea of a low-barrier shelter, but not downtown.

Later in the day, the Cabell County Board of Education voted to table a motion transferring ownership of the former Highlawn Elementary School building to the City of Huntington until the city provides specific plans.

Now, the surmising: Perhaps the school board doesnòòò½ÊÓƵ™t want the former Highlawn building to be turned into a low-barrier shelter. Or it doesnòòò½ÊÓƵ™t want another agency taking it and abandoning it, which would make it an attractive spot for unsheltered people to camp. People in Highlawn complained last year about a homeless camp over the riverbank near McClelland Park. Unidentified homeless people have been blamed for the Christmas Day fire at the former Flint Group plant and a few days later at a vacant commercial building in the neighborhood, although no charges have been filed.

In the downtown area, businesses have complained for years about the number of people who sleep and sometimes urinate and defecate in publicly accessible areas. And those numbers appear to have increased since the opioid epidemic and the spread of loosely regulated (if they are regulated at all) treatment centers for people with substance abuse disorder. Toward the end of his term, then-Mayor Steve Williams began looking into that problem.

To conclude: Farrell has been mayor less than six weeks. Getting control of the number of unsheltered people in the city, particularly in the downtown area, is one of his priorities. That will take time, perhaps more than he expected.

Now Farrell has a new problem. Webb said the low-barrier shelter canòòò½ÊÓƵ™t be relocated away from the Mission itself without adding more staff, which the Mission canòòò½ÊÓƵ™t afford to hire. In any case, Webb said the Mission doesnòòò½ÊÓƵ™t want to relocate the shelter. Itòòò½ÊÓƵ™s already spent $250,000 on something the mayor wants to stop.

If thatòòò½ÊÓƵ™s the case and Farrell canòòò½ÊÓƵ™t find another agency (or the city itself) to take over the project, the idea of a low-barrier shelter could be dead. That puts everything back where it started and possibly worse off than it is now.

Webb has put the project in Farrellòòò½ÊÓƵ™s hands, whether Farrell wanted it or not. Itòòò½ÊÓƵ™s Farrellòòò½ÊÓƵ™s move.