Sudbury Salvation Army in early stages of replacing downtown men's shelter

A service for some of Greater Sudbury's homeless islooking for a new home.

The Salvation Army's New Life Centre is the downtown site for the agency's men's shelter, and it also houses its administration offices at 146 Larch Street.

But, the building is about 60 years old, and the charityis now in the early stages of looking for a replacement building, according toexecutive director Major Bruce Shirran.

He said the facility is not fully accessible to people with disabilities, and too many repairs are needed to make the site work much longer.

Repairs would be too costly

"The cost to renovate this is far beyond what the Salvation Army can possibly afford at this particular time. It's just the age of the building would not be conducive to that at all."

The Salvation Army is moving forward with its housing-first model to provide more permanent supportive housing, although Shirranadmits they still have a long wayto go.

"We'd be looking for a building that provides us with opportunity to still provide an emergency shelter facility, but space that could be developed into apartment units, wherewe could actually house people on a more long-term basis."

"If there is available space, somebody's got a building they'dlike to gift to the Salvation Army, we'd be more than happy to look into that possibility," Shirransaid.

Christmas fundraising

As for finding the money to move forward, the Salvation Army holds a number of fundraisers during the Christmas season.But,Shirran saidthose funds are already earmarked for programsand services not new a building.

In Sudbury, the Salvation Army operates a men's shelter (New Life Centre on Larch Street), a women and familiesshelter (Cedar Place on Cedar Street) and programs through its Community Family Services (on Notre Dame Avenue).

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The agency collects toys through an annual toy drive, and then provides supported families with Christmas hampers filled with a turkey dinner and presents for the children.

The Santa Shuffle, a five kilometrerun/walk which is planned for this Saturday at College Boreal raises money for the two shelters.

And finally, the Christmas Kettle Campaign, which setsup donation buckets at local retail stores, helps raise money to support between 800 - 1,000 families in Sudbury.

"That particular fundraising supports the community on an annual basis, not just at Christmas time, but throughout the entireyear."