As more Regina residents battle food insecurity or homelessness, one group is hoping a former church could be part of the solution.
The former Trinity Lutheran Church has officially gone up for sale for $1.19 million. The Hawk Principle Community Service Cooperative is hoping to purchase the building to support the homeless.
Hawk Principle is a mutual aid organization in Regina. Its goal is to provide continuous support for those in the heritage area.
The team will need more than $2 million to cover the cost of the building and to fund their programs connecting people to services.
“The web of services that everybody thinks exists in the city of Regina right now, overnight it doesn’t exist folks,” said Shawn Koch, co-director of Hawk Principle.
Koch said people need more — and better — places to warm up and eat.
“Right now, between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., people don’t have anywhere to go,” she explained. “We’d love to be able to build a supper program in those hours and there’s so much space here (in the church) to be able to build robust programming.”
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She hopes a new community hub would relieve some stress on other homeless organizations.
“This is a stopgap measure to help take away some of the pressure from Carmichael Outreach, from downtown, from the police, from the new Eagles Club (shelter).”
Organizers specifically mentioned hoping to help Carmichael Outreach deal with its growing needs.
“We want to have times available so that when we’re done, they are able to go to Carmichael and there’s no gaps in between,” said Hawk Principle member, Morgan Orthner.
But buying the church could be a difficult task, in part because of the price, but also because of interest.
Sarah Dymund, the former Trinity Lutheran Church pastor, said there has been interest in the building from other buyers as well.
“We’ve have had several showings and we have a couple of other groups that are considering it,” she said. “I know someone’s coming in to see the building tomorrow. So we’re just waiting for the offer that the trustees accept.”
With time ticking, Koch said the group is hoping to begin raising money soon.
“Ideally March 1, we’ve got a million bucks, we move in and everything’s great,” Koch said.
If the building does sell to someone else, Koch said they will continue to look for a new space to help the community.
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