A new Salvation Army shelter could offer community-wide programmes as well as a halfway house for the homeless.

Divisional commander Major Frank Pittman said renovations to the Bishop Spencer Building would help to deal with the island’s homeless problem and offer a “pathway of hope”.

He said: “Right now the dilapidated building we have is strictly a shelter only — you can come in at night, you depart in the morning and come back again in the evening.

“We don’t have the facility for adequate programming, so we need a place like Bishop Spencer to be able to offer programming.”

Major Pittman said this would include community-wide programmes “that enhance the body, mind and soul” that would not be restricted to the shelter’s residents.

He said it could offer basic exercise programmes, chaplaincy services and emotional support through counselling and guidance, “hence taking the holistic approach”.

The renovation of the Bishop Spencer Building, on The Glebe Road, has been talked about for more than three years but work has yet to start.

Major Pittman said the rebuild would cost about $4 million on top of the organisation’s $2 million annual operating budget.

He said: “A little over two years ago when we did an assessment, we were at $3.5 million.”

Major Pittman added that would likely be higher now because costs would have gone up and the building has deteriorated.

He added: “When we are ready to move, we will update that study.”

But Major Pittman said the Salvation Army also needs the Government’s help to get the project up and running and that he had contacted Ministers to set up a meeting.

He added: “I’m 100 per cent confident that this is the year that we are going to make this work.

“From everything that I’ve seen in the PLP’s platform and their social conscience, I don’t see anything to suggest that they won’t support me.

“What we have to remember is that the homeless population is a Bermuda issue — it’s not the Salvation Army’s issue.

“The Bermuda Government needs to own this situation - but the Salvation Army can be the vehicle whereby we can serve these people.”

Major Pittman said that the new shelter would require partnerships to take on a “life of its own” and would include basic amenities such as a foot clinic.

The Salvation Army also wants to recruit hairdressers and barbers prepared to donate a few hours a week to give shelter residents haircuts.

Major Pittman said: “It’s about anything that will make these people feel respected and help them get a sense of dignity and self-worth.”

He explained a new shelter was expected to house the same amount of people as the current one, which has continued to deteriorate, but that the amenities would be “250 per cent better than what we have today”.

Major Pittman said it could also have transitional housing units that would be self-contained one-room, single occupant apartments.

He added: “The idea of the transition is that it would be affordable and supportive, supportive meaning that they are living in a private apartment but all the supports of the Bishop Spencer are available to them.”

Major Pittman added that the focus of the new shelter would be a route out of homelessness.

“Many people today feel hopeless and sometimes society looks at a lot of people as hopeless but we just look at people with respect and realise that every individual is created for a purpose and they just need to find that purpose and that pathway.

“And that would be the aim of the Salvation Army, to take people on a pathway to hope so that they can be an effective or a contributing member of society.”

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Public Works said: “The planned Bishop Spencer Shelter is still under consideration, and a meeting is planned to further discuss this initiative.”