Siloam Mission announces $30.5M expansion plan

SiloamMission announced a $30.5-millionexpansion plan it says will "alter the landscapeof Winnipegs inner city."

The downtown Winnipeg homeless shelter and soup kitchenheld a breakfast at the Convention Centre on Tuesday, outlining its plansbefore more than 300 community leaders from the business, nonprofit, academic, hospital, and government sectors.

• Siloam Mission asks city for millions to help it expand

Part of theexpansion includes adding 160 housing units at its Princess Street location, where the shelter has been slowly buying up land for years including 288 Princess Street and 303 Stanley Street, along with their parking lots in order to spread out.

The housing units would have their rents based on a person's income.

Our supportive housing community, The Madison, in Wolesley, has been such an incredible success, saidFloyd Perras,Siloam's executive director.

We have provided homes for 85 people who had experienced homelessness in our city but the need is greater than the supply. We already have a long waiting list for The Madison. People need a place to live now. Its time to move forward.

In addition to the added housing, the expansion plans include:

• Tripling the size of Siloam's dining room.
• Increase the standing room to eliminate the need for people to line up outside the building.
• A larger kitchen to accommodate more volunteers.
• Additional coolers and freezer space to store donated food.
• Enhanced shipping area with a loading dock allowing for semis.
• A separate, women-only shelter area
• Addition of day beds for those who are sick and require bed rest and observation.
• Shower and barber facilities.

Siloam is currently working on preliminary designs for the expansion and trying to raise money.

"Certainly, with a $30.5-million build we need help from government, we need help from the business community, help from our donors," said Perras.

"We anticipate having to raise $12 million to $15 million from the community."

He hopes to have fundinganswers from the government before summer, so the shelter knows better how much it needs to raise on its own.

"We're hoping, with our fingers crossed, that we can put our foundation in this fall. But if not, next spring," Perrassaid, adding the plan is to keep Siloam open as much as possible during the construction process.