Next week the Albany City Council will again be asked to consider disposing of four city-owned vacant lots, three of them near the Helping Hands homeless shelter and one close to the riverfront.
The Albany City Council has taken the first step before deciding to dispose of three city-owned lots on Jackson Street and Ninth Avenue near the Helping Hands homeless shelter, which already owns most of that block.
Maybe it wasn’t a favor for the legislature to give Albany $1 million to do something about affordable housing or homelessness. Now the city council has to decide who gets some of the money, and it’s not an easy choice.
It’s not even close to Thanksgiving, but time waits for no one who counts on Christmas tree sales to help support his mission to help the homeless out of the cold and on their feet.
Albany officials say the Signs of Victory Mission as been a big help in dealing with the community’s homeless. In return, the CARA urban renewal board Wednesday endorsed a $100,000 low-interest loan to help the mission finish a new homeless shelter across Jackson Street from the Linn County Jail and Sheriff’s Office.
The Signs of Victory “Freedom Road House” homeless shelter would leave central Albany and move across the tracks, literally, under a plan endorsed Wednesday by the advisory board of CARA, the Central Albany Revitalization Area. But before it happens, a few details remain to be nailed down.
A closed meeting to deliberate sale of lots?
The Albany City Council will hold a public hearing on June 25 before possibly selling three surplus properties near the corner of Ninth Avenue and Jackson Street, close to the Helping Hands homeless shelter and the Pacific Boulevard overpass.
Tags: city property, closed meetings, Helping Hands, homeless shelter, industrial zoning, Ninth and Jackson, pubic property, surplus real estate