Roof Above’s newest shelter, the Howard Levine Men’s Shelter, is opening Wednesday, September 15. The timing of this new shelter is critical, as homelessness is expected to increase with the ending of the eviction moratorium and the continued affordable housing crisis. The shelter will accommodate 164 guests. The guests moving in on September 15th will be transitioned from a motel-based emergency shelter that Roof Above has operated during the pandemic, which will close.
The shelter’s dormitory “pod” style design was updated during the pandemic with safety and social distancing top of mind in a congregate setting.
Also included is a full-service kitchen to prepare and serve meals and a learning lab. Staffing includes office space for on-site employment specialists and on-site housing navigators to meet one-on-one to support each guest in the next steps to move out of homelessness. View the video tour of the shelter.
The new shelter is located at 3406 Statesville Ave. behind our existing Lucille Giles Center. The Giles Center served our community for many years as an overflow shelter, more recently during the pandemic as a winter shelter, and continues to operate as an emergency shelter.
Thanks to community support, the pandemic did not slow the progress of bringing the new shelter from design to reality.
CEO Liz Clasen-Kelly says, “The shelter is named the Howard Levine Men’s Shelter for Howard Levine’s incredible generosity to this project, and he’s joined by other corporate partners, congregational partners, and individuals who all came together to make this happen.” On a recent tour of the shelter, Liz-Clasen-Kelly and Howard Levine talked about the community’s vision and hopeful future that the shelter represents.
Mr. Levine says, “You can tell when you walk through it, the thought that went into this, all the experiences that have been learned from other shelters, things that worked and things that didn’t work, and being able to put them in place in a new building doesn’t happen very often, particularly for a shelter. So it’s very exciting. it’s just amazing and a great facility to really make a difference in these men that are trying to transition to something better.”
“At Roof Above, it’s not just what we do, but it’s how we do it,“ Ms. Clasen-Kelly explains. “And so it is critical that we recognize the humanity of everyone who walks through our door, that we honor that humanity, and leaning into that value of humanity is what informs all of our work.”
We are excited to welcome guests to the Howard Levine Men’s Shelter and walk alongside them in their journey out of homelessness.
