Salvation Army utilizes vacant building

Sarasota City Commissioner Shannon Snyder has been pushing city staff to sell land and buildings they no longer use to consolidate during tough budget years and use the money to pay off city debt.

Although a $1 per-year lease with The Salvation Army to use an empty Central Avenue Sarasota Police Department substation building doesn’t accomplish Snyder’s goal, it could pay dividends further down the line.

David Sutton, Sarasota Salvation Army’s director of programs and facilities, has worked with city staff to craft a five-year, $1 per-year lease with the city for the use of the Central Avenue police substation, which sits across the street from the Sarasota Salvation Army headquarters.

The empty building, which has four offices and a couple of classrooms, will be used to house anywhere from 10 to 30 homeless people who must vacate The Salvation Army headquarters every morning at 5:30 a.m. so the facility can prepare its cafeteria for the coming day.

On one side of the police substation building, a Salvation Army jail release program and the Street Teams division can hold training and create an office for the Street Teams supervisor. The other side of the building contains some classrooms and places for the homeless to stay.

Sutton said the building is ideal because some homeless people have nowhere to go between 5:30 to 8 a.m., when the Resurrection House opens for breakfast and provides the homeless with a place to wash their clothes and take a shower.

“This time of year, especially when it’s rainy, the homeless need places to stay in the early-morning hours,” Sutton said. “This allows them to have a buffer zone and walk across the street instead of huddling under downtown business awnings as downtown is waking up.”

Although the substation building can house upward of 60 people, Sutton sees the facility as helping anywhere from 10 to 15 people who might need to use it before the sun rises.

“It’s a neat and unique concept that allows us to have one more partnership with the city,” Sutton said.
Sutton said if it works out, The Salvation Army would consider purchasing the substation at a later date.
“Once we move in there and fix it up, we can figure out the details moving forward,” Sutton said.

Sutton expects The Salvation Army can begin using the substation by Oct. 1.

Snyder said he’s pleased the building will be used.

“The Salvation Army does really good work and they’re taking over the maintenance of the building for us,” Snyder said. “It’s a good deal all the way around.”

Street Teams Support
The Downtown Improvement District Board of Directors used its Tuesday, June 26 regular meeting to thank and complement the city of Sarasota and The Salvation Army’s Street Teams effort in cleaning up downtown during Tropical Storm Debby. 

“Those people in the yellow shirts are doing a fantastic job cleaning up downtown, especially after the tropical storm came through,” said DID Board Director Dr. Mark Kauffman.

When Kauffman was informed those people are the Street Teams crews, which are made up of homeless people who clean the city’s streets while they find employment, Kauffman and others praised the effort.
David Sutton, Sarasota Salvation Army’s director of programs and facilities, said he couldn’t be more pleased with the program, which has about three crews cleaning up downtown and Newtown.

“We have met and exceeded expectations,” Sutton said. “The community has been thrilled and we’re happy about that.”

Sutton said downtown merchants who support the program would start receiving store sticker signs promoting Street Teams in the coming weeks.

Participants enrolled in the program pick up trash in city streets and parks, trim and weed flower beds and perform minor maintenance work such as painting.