For the past four winters, men and women who lack shelter have streamed into the shabby and increasingly vacant Public Safety Building near City Hall to spend the night when temperatures fall below 40 degrees.

On Oct. 1 when the next heating season begins, the building will continue to serve as the city’s overflow shelter for an average of 82 people a night unless a plan to shift the operation to a historic church building in South Side gains traction.

Commonwealth Catholic Charities, which operates the overflow shelter for the City of Richmond, is proposing to buy the former Community Bainbridge Baptist Church building at 1101 Bainbridge St. as a new home for the shelter and an array of other services for the homeless.

There are hurdles ahead. Richmond City Council would need to approve a special use permit to allow CCC to transform the 20,000-square-foot building into its housing resources center, including the case management and social service programs now operating at 511 W. Grace St. and the organization’s Henrico County headquarters.

So far, 6th District Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, who represents the area, has yet to signal support for relocating the Downtown shelter into a part of Manchester that is being revitalized with new homes, apartments and cultural arts operations.

Jay Brown, CCC’s housing services director, confirmed that the nonprofit has a tentative agreement to purchase the renovated, 161-year-old building that originally served Bainbridge Street Baptist Church and in recent years has been home to Community Bainbridge Baptist and its youth education arm, Commonwealth Christian Academy. Both are led by Dr. Michael D. McClary, who also is founder and leader of the 31-year-old Good Samaritan Ministries that serves the homeless and recovering addicts.

The renamed Community Baptist Church cleared the way for a sale of the property with its move to the former home of Southampton Baptist Church on Comanche Drive in Stratford Hills.

“Everyone knows the space at the Public Safety Building is inadequate,” Mr. Brown said, but finding a building in good condition that can accommodate both a shelter that could serve up to 175 people during the day and night along with providing space for other services has been a tough task.

Shunda T. Giles, director of the Richmond Department of Social Services, said her agency and CCC have reviewed 36 properties during the past four years to try to find a replacement for the Public Safety Building, “which was always intended to be a temporary solution” to shelter the homeless.

Mr. Brown said, and Ms. Giles confirmed, that CCC is not under city pressure to move out of the Public Safety Building, which is among the properties the city is offering to give to a group seeking to develop a new Coliseum and generate other developments.

Plans that group, NH District Corp., have shared with city officials show new office buildings — possibly intended for the Virginia Commonwealth University medical campus — rising on the land the Public Safety Building occupies.

“We have been looking for an alternative location for the operations of the Cold Weather Overflow Shelter,” Ms. Giles stated in an email to the Free Press.

CCC has been searching for a new location since 2014. 

“In 2017, CCCVA informed us they might have found the site, and agreed the new location has potential for housing the shelter, but would require a special use permit,” Ms. Giles stated.

Mr. Brown and his staff and the Department of Social Services staff are conducting outreach to the residents who live near the building. Mr. Brown held a community meeting Wednesday night to hear from residents to address any concerns before applying for a special use permit.

He also is working with former City Council President Kathy Graziano to generate support for approval of a special use permit.

In a statement to the Free Press, Ms. Robertson indicated that there had been too much secrecy about the property search. She also expressed her wish that Ms. Giles, and other officials, including those from CCC, had been more open, rather than waiting to drop a special use permit request on the council.

Officials, Ms. Robertson said, should have come to City Council and the community to inform them “of the need to find a new location.”

She stated that the city also should “publish the need, the services and the boxes to be checked off, go through a citizen planning process to determine location criteria, offer an amendment to the zoning ordinance to allow for homeless housing and create a homeless prevention plan for the city.”

Ms. Robertson also stated that city officials should have issued a request for proposals for a housing resources services center with projected costs outlined as well as the city’s expectations of its service partners.

Suggesting that council might muster the seven votes needed to support the proposed Coliseum development and prevent further use of the Public Safety Building, Ms. Robertson stated, “If, and most likely, services would immediately be needed for this upcoming winter, a community engagement should be done now to identify a location for one year while the permanent plan is done.”

She stated that Mayor Levar M. Stoney and the administration should be planning to present a budget amendment to City Council in March to address costs the city might have to absorb for a new center.

Mr. Brown remains optimistic about winning the community over.

“Our goal is to open in the new site by Oct. 1,” he said, despite the fact that a special use permit has yet to be introduced and, once that happens, it could take two months before council votes on it.