Salvation Army officials have quietly kicked off a capital campaign to raise $4.5 million for a state-of-the-art homeless shelter and social service facility in east Lawrence.

Rich Forney, administrator of the Lawrence operations for the Salvation Army, confirmed Friday that the “quiet phase” of the organization’s fund-raising effort had begun.

Currently, the Salvation Army is approaching potentially large donors and foundations that help nonprofits. Forney said the group expected to begin asking the general public for donations in March.

“We know what we want to do if we can raise the money,” Forney said. “This will be a first-class, state-of-the-art facility for the homeless.”

He said he expected preliminary site work to begin in June and construction to be under way in December 2005. The facility probably would be ready to open in August or September of 2006.

Homeless shelter

The Salvation Army received Lawrence City Commission approval in May for two new buildings totaling 34,000 square feet. They would house a homeless shelter, gymnasium, food bank and office space on the west side of Haskell Avenue between Lynn and Homewood streets.

Forney said the Salvation Army’s board of directors had approved several aspects of the project, but he said plans were subject to change depending on the success of the capital campaign.

The centerpiece would be a “family friendly” homeless shelter with beds for 38 men and 12 women, as well as four “dormitories” for homeless families with children. The dormitories would have a double bed, a bunk bed, a lockable storage container, private bathroom, a sink, microwave and small refrigerator.

Forney

Forney said shelter policy would prohibit homeless people who had been drinking from staying in the shelter. That’s the same policy the Salvation Army uses at its current shelter at 946 N.H.

New rules

But Forney said there would be some new rules at the new shelter. All but a handful of the beds would be reserved for homeless people who either have a job or can prove they are actively searching for a job. Those who don’t have a job would be allowed to stay at the shelter for three days before being required to find a job or enter a Salvation Army program to help them find work.

“We want to try to provide a better living facility to people who are trying to help themselves,” Forney said. “We have seen more than 100 people go through our program in the last 20 months who are now working and in their own housing. This is a concept that works.”

The shelter would be able to serve about the same number of people, but Forney said accommodations would be better. Currently, women sleep on mats on the dining room floor of the Salvation Army building, while men sleep on the gymnasium floor.

Neighbors’ concerns

Unlike its current facility, the new shelter would be open 24 hours a day. Forney said he expected the average stay would be from five to six months while the Salvation Army helped people find a job and secure Section 8 housing, a form of low-income housing.

The project was opposed by several neighborhood groups when city commissioners approved it last summer. Forney said the Salvation Army had conducted several meetings with neighbors to fully explain the project.

“I think we have been able to alleviate some of their fears,” he said. “We’re telling them that this shelter will produce new neighbors for them. It won’t be a bunch of people hanging around outside. It will be a very different program from what we have today.”

Neighbors said they like what they’ve heard from the Salvation Army but most are withholding judgment on the project.

“Our concerns have been verbally addressed anyway,” said Beth Anne Mansur, president of the Brook Creek Neighborhood Assn. “But whether they carry through with their plans remains to be seen. So, are we completely 100 percent behind this project? No, not yet.”

Downtown presence

Mansur said the biggest concern of neighbors continued to be that transient members of the homeless community who aren’t allowed to stay at the shelter would be attracted to the facility, then end up wandering around the neighborhood.

Forney said the Salvation Army also was working to partner with other social service providers to keep a full-time soup kitchen downtown. He said that should reduce the number of those who won’t stay at the shelter coming to the new facility.

The soup kitchen won’t be in the current Salvation Army building. Forney said once a new shelter was open, the organization would sell its property at 10th and New Hampshire streets. Money from the sale would be used to create an endowment to help fund Salvation Army operations, he said.

In addition to the homeless shelter, the east Lawrence facility would include an adjacent building that would house a gymnasium, office space for the organization’s administrators and social service workers, a chapel and a large food bank area where area food pantries could store excess food supplies.

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