New Day intake center moves forward on project to build a new facility 

SOUTH BEND -- Ind, A low barrier homeless center in south bend is moving forward with construction. A unanimous vote by the redevelopment commission on several items moves the New Day intake center closer to groundbreaking.

ABC 57’s Sidney Moore spoke with Sheila McCarthy the New Day executive director who says they expect to break ground at 4022 Old Cleveland road at the end of September.

Caleb Bauer, Director of Community investment for the City of South bend, explains “the commission today approved a purchase agreement to allow the new day Intake Center to purchase land from the Redevelopment Commission, as well as a development agreement that provides some funding to assist with the project and an option to purchase back the Knights In facility at a $1 cost.”

The New Day intake center is expected to replace the City of South Bend’s Motels4Now program. The new facility will have 120 beds and will be a major upgrade compared to the current location at the former Knights Inn Motel.

The new facility will have more amenities geared towards the people coming in. Sheila McCarthy, Executive Director of New Day Intake Center says, “we'll have clinic rooms, we'll have meeting rooms. We'll have a full cafeteria, commercial kitchen, so we'll be able to prepare everything on site.”

The team has been looking at the new location on Old Cleveland Road for quite some time. McCarthy explains, “This is a place that's on the bus line, is less than a mile from the grocery store, the pharmacy and medical Center.”

One of the concerns mentioned at the meeting was safety. But McCarthy explains the new facility will have improved safety features. She says, “currently we don't have a front door. We have to be very vigilant about who's coming onto the property. The new facility will be fully fenced, fully gated, so only our guests will be able to have access to it.”

This 18.8 million dollar project is broken into two phases in order to raise necessary funds to complete the project. Phase one will cover ¾ of the buildings including construction of the admin and support services building, the men’s guest building and central guest building. Phase two will cost 4.3 million dollars and will finish the project ending with construction of the women's guest building.

Part of the agreement is that upon construction, New Day will have a deadline for completion set at December 31, 2027. McCarthy tells ABC 57 she expects construction to begin at the end of September.