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It was kind of like the Mark Twain short story �����Ƶ�The War Prayer.�����Ƶ� People gathered at church to pray for victory in battle for their soldiers about to go off to war. But a man saying he was a messenger from heaven interrupted the service to remind them of the unsaid part of their prayer �����Ƶ� that they wanted heaven�����Ƶ�s help to slay the young men on the other side of battle, to make women into widows and to make their children homeless and destitute.

The story concludes, �����Ƶ�It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.�����Ƶ�

That was sort of how I felt this week while trying to process the announcement of Mayor Patrick Farrell�����Ƶ�s plan to renovate a city-owned storage building at the corner of Virginia Avenue and 2nd Street West into a low-barrier shelter for the city�����Ƶ�s homeless and unsheltered population. It would replace the one being built at or near the corner of 7th Avenue and 11th Street in the city�����Ƶ�s central business district, also known as the downtown area.

The Huntington City Mission had begun construction of its own low-barrier shelter there, but the mayor put a stop to it. The mayor says he will make sure the Mission will be �����Ƶ�made whole�����Ƶ� for the expenses it has incurred.

For whom is this good news, and for whom is it bad news? If you�����Ƶ�re not on the inside of the negotiations, or if you�����Ƶ�re not a neighbor of either site, it�����Ƶ�s hard to say.

The Virginia Avenue site is in a commercial area and a few blocks away from residences. Neighboring businesses have not said whether they welcome the shelter or are wary of the foot traffic it will bring.

That site is also what some people would consider to be a long walk from homeless services being offered at Harmony House and at the Mission. Harmony House officials say they are looking to move out of their location on the 600 block of 4th Avenue, but that could be years away.

Does moving the low-barrier shelter to the West End affect the Highlawn neighborhood at the other end of town? People there have complained about a homeless encampment on the Ohio River bank. They say homeless people break into vacant buildings. Two industrial and commercial buildings along 5th Avenue there caught fire this past winter. City officials said homeless people seeking shelter from the weather were to blame for both.

Farrell says the low-barrier shelter at Virginia Avenue site will be up and running by winter. The Mission�����Ƶ�s shelter would have been ready this summer.

So was the mayor�����Ƶ�s announcement this week good news? There are so many variables at play and so many questions that it�����Ƶ�s difficult for someone who has no direct involvement with the process to judge what is going on. What may benefit one group of people could be a detriment to others.

For the moment it could be a matter of who you trust and a matter of time to sort through the details and see how it all plays out in both the short term and long.