$1.5 million grant helps Salvation Army repair aging building

The room had stained carpet and two pieces of old furniture.

The women staying there were moved while the bathrooms and showers on their dormitory floor are renovated.

That’s on the second floor of the Salvation Army of Southern Nevada’s vocational building, which is reserved for use by the homeless and those enrolled in a vocational program. It was built a decade ago, but it is in need of repairs.

“It’s been used to the point where it looks like it’s been used for 50 years,” said Phillip Hollon, director of social services for the Salvation Army.

Leaders with some of the nonprofits in Southern Nevada say it’s a struggle to keep up with building maintenance. Because of the large number of people who go through such facilities, items such as showers, toilets and kitchens have fewer years of service.

The deteriorating Salvation Army building was on its way to no longer being usable, said Maj. Robert Lloyd, Clark County coordinator for the Salvation Army.

The nonprofit on Friday received a $1.5 million grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank in San Francisco, which will help cover Phase II of the facility’s renovation. Phase I will cost the Salvation Army about $700,000, which includes the renovations of the showers on the second and third floors. It hopes to raise money to cover the $700,000.

The grant “allows us to give a new life to a facility that has serious deferred maintenance issues,” Lloyd said.

The nonprofit serves about 1,500 hot meals a day, including those to the homeless.

The Salvation Army is not the only nonprofit struggling with building upkeep. The Shade Tree’s 13-year-old building on West Owens Avenue in North Las Vegas is also showing wear. In December, the organization finished a full renovation of the bathrooms on the third floor, said Marlene Richter, executive director of the shelter for women and children.

The work was done thanks to a local nonprofit, Rebuilding Together.

“If we didn’t have companies like Building Together, it would be devastating,” Richter said Friday.

Small kitchens on Shade Tree’s second and third floors will be renovated next.

The high number of clients that the organization has served in the last four years has taken a toll on the equipment, she said.

In 2013, Shade Tree served 6,004 people.

Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada is no different.

“Maintenance is always a challenge just simply because of the number of individuals that we serve every day,” said Steve Meriwether, vice president of plaza services, which includes maintenance and housekeeping, at Catholic Charities.

Maintenance issues are prioritized based on client needs, he said. They get a lot of leaky faucets and broken toilets.

“Because of the amount of use that they get, they break,” he said.

Reporter Yesenia Amaro can be reached at (702) 383-0440, or yamaro@reviewjournal.com.