Humanity Project's landlord prepared to issue vacate order to spur sale

The organization that owns the former Moncton Curlers' Association building wants the property sold.

The building houses the Humanity Project, which serves meals to homeless people and helps them find housing, and What Kids Need Moncton, which provides clothing, toys and tutoring to families in need.

On Tuesday, Moncton city council rejected a request to lend the Humanity Project $200,000 so it could buy the building.

Curl Moncton vice-president Jacques Robichaudsays if the Humanity Project can't go ahead with the purchase, Curl Moncton will have to give the organization notice to vacate.

"We'll give them enough time to go out of the building, then we'll have to start looking at finding another potential interested party to purchase the property." said Robichaud.

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Robichaud says the Humanity Project has been in the building for 14 months, but rent was only charged for November and December. He says that money would have been deducted from the sale of the building.

Founderdisappointed

The founder of the Humanity Project says he's disappointed by council's decision.

Charles Burrell says not getting the $200,000 loan "kind of feels like a slap in the face."

The city is giving the organization an annual grant for 10 years to operate a community food program.

"They're giving us a $25,000-a-year grant for the next 10 years for our feeding program, which is great, but it has to be used for rent or food or stuff like that and we can't use that grant for capital expenses like the purchase of a building or land," said Burrell.

Burrell saidit will be difficult to find a location with enough room for a community centre, community garden and individual studio-type apartments, which the group hopes to add in the future.

Challenging search

The asking price of the MCA building is $450,000.

Burrell says finding a central location in that price range will be challenging.

"We've looked at many different places throughout the city, whether it be in purchasing or leasing," said Burrell.

"There's some places to lease way beyond our budget and as for finding a place to purchase, well, even if we have half the money, it's going to take a lot longer to get that other half now."

Failure is not an option and we will not give up on children, the seniors, the homeless and the working poor families of our city.- Charles Burrell, the Humanity Project

Burrell says his organization will meet with What Kids Need Moncton to talk about their next move.

"Failure is not an option and we will not give up on children, the seniors, the homeless and the working poor families of our city," he said.

Anxious to sell

Robichaud says Curl Moncton is anxious to sell the property.

"I understand their situation, but we have the equity in the building [and] we were looking to get out of the building sooner than this."

Curl Moncton wants to use proceeds from the sale to expand its location at the corner of Lockhart and Essexstreets.