The Busby Centre has officially launched its capital campaign to raise $2.2 million toward the purchase of the building located at 88 and 90 Mulcaster St.
The building, which formerly housed Barriston Law, was purchased by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) in 2014 with a plan to act as a social services hub under the Barrie Pathways to End Homelessness model. The Busby Centre moved into the lower level of 88 Mulcaster in October 2014 before expanding to the upper level a few years later.
The CMHA "has owned the building and were our landlords for the last few years, and are moving on to other space. We have had the opportunity to purchase this place, so we are trying to make that happen,” Busby Centre executive director Sara Peddle told BarrieToday.
She says the opportunity to own their own space will go a long way in allowing the organization to better serve its clients.
“There are only so many places that our organization can be because of zoning, and this space has been really good to us," Peddle said. "We felt it would be a good opportunity to make sure that is a long-term solution for us and that we won’t have to worry about if there’s another owner. We can own our space and take pride in our space so that we can keep people sheltered and give them the support they need while they are experiencing homelessness."
The Busby Centre is a community-based, not-for-profit organization which advocates for and improves conditions for individuals and families experiencing homelessness or at risk of being homeless within the County of Simcoe, including Barrie, and the southern Georgian Bay area.
The current space on Mulcaster containing the downtown emergency shelter is approximately 7,000 square feet in size, while the adjoining space at 90 Mulcaster is approximately 10,000 square feet in size, Peddle noted.
“Right now, at 88 Mulcaster we are running an emergency shelter overnight as well as drop-in during the day and we have a variety of services that come into our centre to be able to serve the individuals that are coming," she said. "Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of space for them to be able to meet with these people in a private manner because of the limited space.”
This purchase will allow the Busby Centre to be able to facilitate a “community social service hub” in the city, she added
Given the "last-minute" nature of the deal, Peddle acknowledged it’s going to take a lot of work to reach that $2.2-million goal, noting that amount will help cover the cost of the down-payment on the property, as well as assist in the transition into operating the space.
“This was kind of a last-minute opportunity that came up for us, and not something that we have had a lot of time to plan for," she said. "We are hoping that the community can help us with getting some of that in place so that we can transition into the larger space and make sure we are providing the best services we can."
Although there are not currently any fundraising events planned, the organization will be looking into a variety of different opportunities, Peddle added.
“With this being against a very short term of getting out there, we are hoping that the community comes together with private donations, but we will also be putting out applications and looking for different events to put together as well over the next couple of months so that we can get the community involved," she said.
Peddle is hopeful that all of the pieces needed to make this happen will fall into place. As the needs continue to grow for people experiencing homelessness in the community, so too does the need for a safe place to offer them assistance.
“The spaces that we have are limited in how many people we can bring in … so we feel by expanding we will be able to provide more impactful connection and support for people that are experiencing homelessness, and hopefully increase some bed space in our shelter until we have adequate housing for them,” she said.
“Ultimately, we don’t want to create more shelter space. We want to create more housing, but it’s going to take us some time to do that, so we need to be able to provide services while we are waiting for housing to be built.”
