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Social service complex outlined

Project includes family shelter, apartments

A chunk of property on 23rd Street between Branch and Beale avenues will soon become a headquarters for helping people who are homeless or otherwise struggling economically.

On the Branch Avenue side, Family Services Inc. plans to create a 35-bed family shelter, plus six apartments for people with low incomes, replacing the organization’s current undersized shelter near the former Bon Secours property.

On the Beale Avenue side — and in an attached garage on the Branch Avenue side — Blair County Community Action Agency will create a consolidated home for social service programs, replacing its current office building on the 2100 block of Sixth Avenue and its weatherization facility on the 2000 block of Eighth Avenue.

The development of the complex with its complementary services on two-thirds of a square block currently owned by Jay Drenning — property that was home to a trucking company that has been out of business for several years — is being coordinated by the Durbin family as a private-public partnership, according to Lisa Hann, executive director of Family Services, which announced its hope for the shelter project, but not its location, several months ago.

The Durbin family is buying the property, executing environmental cleanup, selling the brick warehouse building and the first of two attached in-line block garages to Family Services, constructing the office building for Community Action and leasing the other garage to that agency for weatherization storage, according to Hann.

The Durbins also may lease classroom space in the Community Action building to Blair County Head Start, according to Hann and a notice from the state about a grant that will help with environmental assessment.

The Durbins will tear down a building mid-block on the Beale Avenue side, Hann said.

Friedman Electric Supply and three houses on the end closest to 24th Street are not part of the project, Hann said.

The warehouse and first attached garage are basically empty spaces that Family Services will build out at an estimated cost of $2.8 million, according to Hann. It will bid the work, she said.

Family Services has obtained commitments for $490,000 in grants from Blair Health Choices, the city’s Community Development Block Grant fund, Blair County’s Act 137 fund and Reliance Bank, Hann said.

Family Services has applied for and is hopeful of receiving $1.45 million in grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Pro­gram, the Keystone Community Program, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME program and Blair County’s CDBG fund, Hann said.

The organization still needs to raise about $800,000, Hann said.

Her organization hopes to begin construction in April and to open the shelter and apartments in January 2020, she said.

The new facility will have more than twice as many beds as the current 16-bed shelter and room for services like job, work-search and life-skills training and medical screenings, according to Hann. There also will be room for volunteers and interns to experience and help out in human service work, she said.

Community Action will have 30 offices in its new building, compared to the 21 it has at its current location, which it owns, but which it’s “outgrown,” according to Executive Director Sergio Carmona.

The building will include offices for weatherization, replacing that program’s “dated” separate offices and allowing easier communication among administrators of the agency and the staff for the weatherization program, Carmona said.

The flow of work will be better when such communications don’t need to take place by email or through visits to the main office by weatherization staffers, Carmona said.

The new building will have a large conference room, two classrooms and space for expansion — allowing for the addition of programs, Carmona said.

The agency is constantly floating social-service proposals, he said.

Community Action will pay the rent with funds generated by the contracts it signs with the county, the state or the federal government to provide its services — payments that include money to cover leasing and administration, Carmona said.

Community Action operates a transportation management program for people on Social Security and Social Security disability; provides counseling through a HUD program for those hoping to buy a house; operates a couple of rental assistance programs to prevent homelessness; helps homeless people obtain appropriate housing; and operates the weatherization program.

The co-location of the two agencies will make it easier for homeless people to take advantage of Community Action’s services, Carmona said.

The developer will provide off-street parking, according to Hann and Carmona.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

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