Reaching out
Local homeless society searching for financial help
The Truro Homeless Outreach Society is calling on the community to help keep the doors open at the local shelter.
Without an immediate influx of community assistance, Truro’s Homeless Outreach Society will soon be in the same state as the people it serves.
“In all honesty, in four months time if we don’t have nowhere to go, the homeless shelter is going to be homeless,” said the society’s newly installed chairman, Eugene Murphy.
“It is what is,” he said. “That’s where we’re at.”
The society had been planning to construct a new building at 12 Mill St., on land granted by the Town of Truro. For decades, that location was the site of the town’s former Public Works building.
But a combination of factors, including potential costs for cleaning up anything that may be buried in the soil, along with having less revenue than believed in society coffers has forced members to accept that new construction is out of the question, Murphy said. The donated land will be offered back to the town.
“They were relying on some resources that just didn’t capitalize,” he said, of the revenue the society was counting on for the new construction. “We just didn’t have the information.”
The shelter is currently operating out of space provided by the First United Church. But after receiving numerous extensions the society has been told it must vacate that facility by the end of August.
Group secretary Andrea Thompson added that the First United Church has been “extremely” good to the society, as have other area churches.
“We have survived by the grace of all the churches in Truro,” she said. The society is currently providing temporary shelter for four to six people each night.
And having given up on plans for new construction it now is searching for a building of approximately 5,000 sq. ft. to purchase.
But with only about $220,000 in its account and monthly operational expenses of $4,500, community help is paramount to the shelter’s survival.
“And that’s coming out of our building fund. That’s coming out of the money we need to buy a place with,” Murphy said.
“In order for us to get building we have to make a plea to the Town of Truro and surrounding areas for help financially.”
Last year’s contributions were down by $27,000, Thompson said, “and every time I check the mail there is less and less coming in as far as donations.”
The society is in the process of forming a fundraising committee, she said, and anyone who wants to participate does not have to be a member of the board. Anyone interested in helping out can contact her at: secretary@trurohomeless.ca .