‘An opportunity to help’ Lexington shelter needs more beds, donations due to COVID-19
The Catholic Action Center is renovating 8,000 square feet of space at its Industry Road location to add 80 beds for Lexington’s homeless population as the number without shelter has spiked.
And with winter, flu season, evictions resuming and an ongoing global pandemic, those 80 beds will be needed.
“We have to turn people away every day,” said Ginny Ramsey, co-founder of the Catholic Action Center.
The Catholic Action Center currently has 69 people at its existing shelter in the Industry Road building. Due to health department guidelines put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19, that’s all the shelter can take. Starting in March, the Catholic Action Center had used a second property in Garrard County for additional high-risk clients, but that second location shut down last month. The property, a former Catholic retreat center, will soon be turned into a drug treatment facility.
Part of the second floor of the Industry Road building is vacant after the state moved out Aug. 1. It was the former Career Center or unemployment office. Starting soon, the former office space will be transformed into a temporary shelter to house up to 80 men. The renovations will include adding showers, new ventilation systems and a separate quarantine room for anyone testing positive for COVID-19. The temporary shelter will use the existing kitchen in the current shelter to feed those clients.
“No one new has been added to our bed list since the third week of March,” Ramsey said.
No client of the Catholic Action Center has tested positive since March. Nearly 250 people have been tested.
The upstairs shelter for men will be called the Mother Teresa COVID-19 Shelter. With needed donations, the shelter will hopefully be open by mid-October, Ramsey said. The existing shelter space will be used for women.
To have the shelter ready in time for colder weather, the Catholic Action Center needs $125,000 and is asking for the community’s help, Ramsey said. The center had hoped it could get funding through federal coronavirus relief money via the city, but that money will not be available in time for the shelter to be up and running by October, Ramsey said.
Ramsey said a generous donor has stepped up with a $20,000 donation, but the shelter needs in additional $125,000. Much of that money is for a new air system and other mechanical issues that need to be fixed.
“We need to call on our city to realize what a critical situation this is,” Ramsey said. “People think it’s bad now when you see all these people on the streets and all around ... just wait.”
Ramsey said the downstairs shelter can typically house up to 145 people at peak capacity, which usually occurs when the temperature drops. Once a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, the Catholic Action Center can increase its downstairs capacity and will not need the temporary shelter.
When the Mother Teresa COVID-19 Shelter closes, that space will be used by Mountain Comprehensive Care and Health First, which have offices in the building and need more space. Both organizations work with Catholic Action Center clients, Ramsey said.
The community has always responded when the shelter has had a need, Ramsey said.
“This is an opportunity for the community to help,” Ramsey said.
To find out more and how to donate, go to the Catholic Action Center’s website at www.catholicactioncenter.net.
