LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Every day at 5 p.m., a large line forms in the parking lot of the Salvation Army's Louisville campus at 911 S. Brook Street.
Some people are staying at the Salvation Army overnight, some are part of the facility's day program and others are just getting a meal.
"From 9 until 3:30 Monday through Friday [we're inside]. And then Saturdays and Sundays we're outside," said Derek Kinney, who was staying in the day program when WHAS11 interviewed him on May 16.
Houseless residents eat and then decide their next move for the night. Will they be able to get into an overnight shelter? Or would they prefer to stay outside?
By 2026, the aesthetics, housing options and overall feelings of hope on this block are supposed to go way up.
Volunteers of America Mid-States (VOA) is leading the development of the $40 million Community Care Campus on East Breckenridge Street, just east of I-65.
The project was jump-started by Louisville Metro Government, which purchased the land for $6.9 million and committed $2 million in its 2024 budget. VOA was chosen as the project lead in December and just released its master plan in April. The master plan contains several examples of overlap with what Mayor Craig Greenberg has called for on the site as far back as January 2023.
“Soon this community will get what it deserves; a beautiful, professionally operated set of programs that is accessible to them," VOA Mid-States CEO Jennifer Hancock said.
There are four types of housing in the master plan: a 34-unit emergency family shelter called Unity House, transitional housing for youth ages 18-24, medical respite for people leaving the hospital, and 80 units of affordable housing.
Unity House will be the first to open, and will occupy the former Vu Hotel building on South Floyd Street. Interior renovations of the building are scheduled to begin soon.
The plan is to open that building by the end of this year. The entire campus is not planned to open until 2026.
Very little is "set in stone" for the medical respite facility and the affordable housing units. Family Health Centers is the project lead for the medical respite facility.
CEO Bart Irwin told WHAS11 recently, "We are still in the process of meeting and designing that program."
Irwin said they are trying to bring in Norton Healthcare and UofL Health, but there is no signed contract.
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Tamara Reif, senior director of housing for VOA, said it is still too early to say what level of income or housing status will be required to stay in the 80 units of affordable housing.
"We want to get this right, and we want this to be sustainable, more than we want this to be done quickly," Hancock said about all the moving parts in the project.
Reif estimated up to 250 people will be able to stay on the campus at a time when it is done.
While there are still many questions about the timeline of the project, and the specifics of who will go into each program, Mayor Greenberg says it took a lot of work to get to this point.
"There has been action," he said. "We have been working – the VOA has been hard at work to develop the plans that were just released. That didn't happen overnight. They took months to put together."
The project has $24 million in funding at this time; $22 million from the state legislature's general fund, and $2 million from the city's 2024 budget. VOA is now on a fundraising campaign to secure the remaining portion.
They are hoping to receive $15 million from large private donors, or small community donations over the next year and a half. Hancock says they are not planning to ask the city for more money.
"At this point, it is really not part of our plan to ask the city to make any additional investments," Hancock said. "Local foundations, donors, corporations, they're eager to come to the table."
At a recent community listening meeting about the project, one woman asked if she could sign up for the affordable housing now. Rief had to tell her they're probably at least a year away from that point.
Pony Morris with VOCAL-KY also suggested they open up the C2 event space, which will be VOA's new headquarters, into some kind of shelter now.
Hancock says from her conversations, she thinks local community groups are on board with a 2026 completion date.
"I feel that there is a sense of collaboration and unity around this project…So I feel great about the timeline," she said. "I have not heard any community pushback."
Kinney and other houseless residents don't get to watch these behind-the-scenes planning meetings. They just see the same block for another summer.
"There's no time to waste," Kinney said. "We need to get things done and get it right. If we're gonna say we're gonna do it, we need to do it."
Hancock emphasized that the campus will be a safe place when it is done. She says there will be a "touchdown space" for Louisville Metro Police.
Some community members were not happy to hear this, but VOA said it's not a substation, just a place for LMPD officers to "charge their laptops" or swing by and check on things.
Hancock also brought up the idea of a coffee shop on the campus, or some other local business partnership.