Souls Harbour begins work on new soup kitchen

With a building that’s over 100 years old, and maintenance becoming more and more expensive, Regina’s Souls Harbour is getting ready for a change.

The charity announced Thursday it will be moving its soup kitchen and men’s emergency shelter to a new location in the spring of 2018 as a part of the “Samaritan Project”.

The current building, located at 1836 Hamilton Street, is over a century old and is no longer large enough to accommodate their needs.

“We’re turning away men from our emergency shelter, the soup kitchen’s packed. There’s not a lot of room for our volunteers to work and our guests filling it up every night,” said Director of Operations Michael Towers.

He mentioned that maintenance for the building has been increasing.

“We’re constantly having to spend money to make sure that it’s still a safe place for our guests to be.”

The new building will be on the 1600 block of Angus Street. The first floor will have a larger dining area and will double as the men’s shelter at night. This will increase the amount of beds available from 12 to 24.

The second floor will have five affordable housing suites, the third floor will house a subsidized 60 spot daycare. The fourth floor will host another 11 affordable housing suites.

The project will cost around $7 million.

While funding has already been secured for the construction of the building, Souls Harbour is accepting donations to put towards the principle when they go to put a mortgage on the building when it opens up.

Construction is set to begin in July.