The head of Safe Ground says the group has not been able to pick an appropriate location for long-term housing.

"The effort to find a permanent site is not something that can happen as quickly as we would all like."

Steve Watters told City Council members last night that in the meantime, the city needs a temporary spot.

"We could look at warehouses that are empty, buildings that are empty. We can look at large tents like this."

Watters showed the council a slide of a huge, circus-like, white tent.

"Didn't want to scare anybody with a large tent."

But he kind of did. Councilman Steve Cohn suggested nobody would want something like that in their neighborhood.

"It's hard for me to visualize that tent structure you're talking about as being an acceptable option."

Assistant City Manager Cassandra Jennings says city staff will look at expanding current temporary homeless shelters instead. Safe Ground says some kind of temporary site is needed for the next 18-months.