Members of the Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) board agreed in a joint-subcommittee meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 13 to consider funding assistance for a temporary detox center in downtown, capping the assistance to $1.3 million.
The decision now lies in the hands of the Centre City Advisory Committee (CCAC) to recommend that the funding assistance for the Volunteers of America (VOA) relocation be approved. Once the CCAC votes it is up to CCDC’s board and the Redevelopment Agency to approve the funding. The CCAC is scheduled to meet Wednesday, Sept. 20.
VOA, a non-profit organization that runs the detox center, is losing its lease at 1111 Island Ave., in the East Village on Dec. 31. Originally due to move last November, they received two lease extensions by the new property owner, Barratt American, with assistance from District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer.
VOA originally hoped to relocate the detox center to 3565 Del Ray St. near Mission Bay Drive East, but community protests and a pledge by Faulconer to find a more suitable location prevented the move.
The $1.3 million would go towards the purchasing and improvements of two or more modular buildings that would be installed on a level-graded, 7,500 square foot site, said CCDC Senior Project Manager, John Collum.
“We’re going with the idea that there won’t be a cost for the site itself,” Collum said. “The city or the corporation will already own it.”
The City Council District 2 office requested that CCDC assist in the efforts to determine suitable downtown location for the VOA, according to the Staff Report for the upcoming CCAC meeting.
“I believe that the board joint-committee that heard the item felt that it was important that this service be provided the necessary funds it needed in order to continue to operate downtown,” Collum said. “They felt that the services that they were providing for the downtown community was important enough that they should be involved in helping them find a place to relocate as they had requested.”
Currently, there are numerous sites being considered for the relocation. According to staff reports there are two CCDC-controlled sites available to locate modular buildings. The first, located on Broadway between 13th and 14th streets, the CCDC is in the process of purchasing for the planned East Village fire station. The second, located between Park Boulevard and 11th Avenue and between G and Market Streets, was purchased several years ago with the intention of constructing an affordable housing project.
“We’re going to continue to work to try to find a location that would provide the fewest impacts on downtown as possible,” Collum said. “But we’re still in the midst of working with the council district office on trying to figure out where those locations are. We do believe that there may be locations other than the two mentioned in the reports, they would have to be corporation-controlled or city-controlled.”
CCDC would then lease the building and site to the VOA, on a short-term basis ” 18 months with an optional 18-month extension ” until they can find a permanent home.
According to Collum, CCDC could determine which location would be used for the detox center during the week.
“Hopefully by next Wednesday [Sept. 27] we can orally report to the board where we think the best location is,” Collum said. “Then we will have to work on what the process is to purchase and install the modulars.”