John Howard Society trying to find housing for clients affected by shelter closure in Sudbury

One local agency says several challenges are making it more difficult to find housing for the men who will soon be displaced when Sudbury's only men's shelter closes next week.

The Salvation Army says due to financial constraints, it will close its New Life Centre next Friday.

Other agencies, like the John Howard Society, have been trying to connect these clients with permanent housing.

The assistant executive director for the Sudbury chapter, Sara Berghammer, says the time crunch plus the lack of affordable housing is making things difficult.

"The waiting lists are long and for people for instance that are leaving the shelter when it closes May 10th, there's not a lot of options for them," she said.

"Many of those folks can not afford market rent and if they're put on the waiting list for Sudbury Housing the wait has been a year, two years and in some cases even longer than that."

Berghammer says finding suitable housing is a challenge.

"We're constantly searching for housing. We're very fortunate in that we have relationships with landlords so they let us know right away when something is coming up or when something is available," she said.

"We're doing all that we can to try and help. We certainly don't like to see people out on the street. It's not healthy for the person to be out on the street and it's certainly not healthy for our community, as a whole."

Berghammer thinks it would be irresponsible to not have a men's shelter in the community.

The city's Homelessness Network is expected to talk about possible solutions next week.