The city of Syracuse is breaking ground on a new facility to help homeless women.
The project on West Onondaga Street is collaboration between the Salvation Army and Housing Visions. The building has a lot of history.
It was an apartment building in the 1920s and then for years, it sat vacantly. There are four floors in the building.
The first serves as an emergency shelter for women with mental illness and substance abuse issues. The other three floors are apartments, 16 altogether for single women.
The Salvation Army will be providing case management services and life skill training.
This $8.2 million project has been in the works for some time, so those behind the scenes are proud to see it all come together.
“It’s near and dear to my heart. It’s really important because the structure that we currently have while it’s a beautiful house it just needs a lot of work,” said Salvation Army Director of Emergency Services Allison Brooks. “We’ll be able to provide a really comfortable and stable place for people. This gives us more room for doctors to be able to come in and provide services, mental health professionals, substance abuse counselors. We’re actually going to have space now for them to come in and meet with people here so that if someone doesn’t want to leave for whatever reason, they don’t have to. They can stay here and get all the services they need.”