Photo courtesy of Invest Atlanta

The Salvation Army’s capital campaign is raising funds to transform the organization’s current homeless shelter facility into a new, expanded Center of Hope campus.

Construction is barreling ahead on another downtown Atlanta project aiming to take in the city's most vulnerable populations from the streets and help get them headed toward more sustainable lives.

Like The Melody, Atlanta's first rapid temporary housing initiative, and another modular-housing proposal in Mechanicsville detailed by Mayor Andre Dickens in early September, the Salvation Army embarked several months ago on a major expansion of its longstanding Center of Hope facilities just north of Centennial Olympic Park.

Urbanize Atlanta reported that a Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta capital campaign, HOPE with Dignity, raised funds to expand the organization's Red Shield Services homeless shelter at 400 Luckie St. into a more comprehensive and modern Center of Hope campus.

The current facility is cramped and does not have enough space to adequately separate male and female residents, which has prompted safety concerns, according to project supporters.

The new $20 million, 46,000-sq.-ft. Center of Hope will stand five stories tall and be located where Marietta Street meets Mills Street, about a block from the Georgia Aquarium.

Officials with Invest Atlanta noted that the project will double the size of the Salvation Army's current downtown building, allowing the organization to house its emergency and transitional living shelter facility, and boost the number of beds from the current 321 to 437. Plans call for two floors of dormitory-style housing for male residents, and another two floors of individualized living spaces.

Another component of the new structure will be a Salvation Army Education and Workforce Development Center with a computer lab and six classrooms, plus study and collaboration areas, Urbanize Atlanta noted.

That portion of the facility will offer services to residents such as housing solutions, financial education, emergency assistance programs and other specialized programs designed to support veteran services. Additionally, a portion of the new beds at the Center of Hope will be reserved specifically for military veterans.

The expansion will allow for the Salvation Army's current downtown Atlanta facilities to be dedicated to women and families, easing concerns caused by overcrowding.

Invest Atlanta's board approved a $2 million Westside Tax Allocation District Ascension Fund Grant to help the project get off the ground in 2023. It was joined in the funding effort by Atlanta Emerging Markets, which contributed $15 million. Dudley Ventures, a national investment firm with offices in the Georgia capital city, gave $9 million for the new Salvation Army shelter, and Truist Community Development Enterprises contributed another $4 million.

Dudley Ventures said that the expansion project will create 23 full-time jobs in an area with a 47 percent poverty rate and an unemployment rate of nearly 24 percent. During the intake process, all unemployed residents at the Center of Hope will be connected with the facility's workforce development center, which will partner with local job placement agencies, per the firm.

The Salvation Army's new Center of Hope is scheduled to be completed in 2025, according to the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District.

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