A facility proposed near the former ParkView Regional Medical Center to house up to 25 homeless people while helping them find permanent housing will not hurt quality of life in the Wildwood neighborhood, its developer said Tuesday night in response to stiff opposition from residents.

“This is not a population of people that’s under the bridge,” Tina Hayward told about 50 people at a meeting organized by the area’s homeowners association at Anshe Chesed Temple on Grove Street. “These are people who have gotten support and gotten help. We’re not trying to open up a homeless camp or a tent city or anything like that.”

Hayward, executive director of Mountain of Faith Ministries, showed up about halfway through the 90-minute forum on the nonprofit’s request of the city for a zoning exception for structures on the 16.2-acre former medical complex. The property is zoned CBR-4, a combo category for commercial, business and multifamily residential buildings.