Rebecca Haywood, chief of staff for Neighborhood Alliance, told the Lorraine Fair Housing Board on Aug. 21 that the nonprofit has completed the first phase of a shelter renovation and will begin the second phase after this winter’s extreme‑weather period. The work is intended to expand family capacity, create private rooms for single residents and bring the county’s warming center operations in‑house.

The project matters because it increases local emergency housing capacity for families and single women, integrates extreme‑weather services under one operator and is funded in part by restricted federal HOME‑ARP dollars the city has committed to the project.

Neighborhood Alliance opened the first phase, called the Morton Wing, in November. Haywood said the wing includes eight small dual rooms—configured for two small beds or a parent and small child—and 11 larger private family rooms that can be configured to fit larger households. Each room in that wing has a private bathroom, and the renovation added an elevator to improve accessibility.

Haywood said moving the extreme‑weather program into the shelter has reduced costs and allowed staff to run warming operations with on‑site security. She said the Morton Wing has helped the agency provide longer, on‑site case management for families over the winter.

The agency plans a second phase, the Haven Wing, which currently houses single residents in 12 congregate dorm rooms with five to seven beds per room. Haywood said the board intends to go to bid this fall and start construction late next spring, after the extreme‑weather program ends for the season. Once renovated, she said the Haven Wing will be converted mostly to single‑occupancy rooms with private bathrooms, mirroring the Morton Wing’s layout, and will include phone pods—small private spaces for calls or video meetings.

Haywood said that after phase two is finished the shelter’s total capacity will be 93 beds; she said the Morton Wing accounts for roughly 59 of those beds now. Since the Morton Wing opened in November, Neighborhood Alliance has served 109 families in the county, Haywood said. She estimated that families often stay far longer than a typical 30–45‑day emergency‑shelter standard—“probably, I’m going to say, 120 to 150 days” for many families—because of complex barriers such as evictions, criminal records, involvement with children’s services and addiction.

Haywood described the county’s coordinated entry system as the point of intake for people seeking shelter and gave a county intake number: 242‑0455. She also said the shelters and agencies use HMIS Clarity, the homeless management information system database, to track bed availability and client episodes of homelessness across programs.

A city official at the meeting said the City of Lorraine is providing “almost a million dollars” in HOME‑ARP funds to support the conversion work. The official said HOME‑ARP funding is “very, very, very restrictive” and may be allocated only to projects that serve all four HOME‑ARP qualifying populations; the official added that the city must spend the funds by 2030. The speaker named three qualifying groups—people who are homeless, people at risk of homelessness and people fleeing domestic violence—and did not specify the fourth population during the meeting.

Haywood and board members emphasized that the renovation aims to preserve overall bed capacity while construction is under way and to give clients greater privacy and trauma‑informed accommodations. Haywood said Neighborhood Alliance will rely on relationships with private landlords and case management to place families in transitional or permanent housing when they are ready.

Haywood said the agency’s role is to operate the shelter and case‑management services; she identified herself as Neighborhood Alliance’s chief of staff and as the former director of shelter and emergency services. She did not present a formal motion; board members asked clarifying questions about timeline, accessibility and fund restrictions.

Neighborhood Alliance said coordinated entry handles daily bed referrals; people seeking shelter should call the coordinated‑entry intake number. The board heard no vote or formal approval at the Aug. 21 meeting; members indicated the project will proceed to bid and construction according to the timeline described.