One of Lexington’s organizations working to help the homeless will be offering new transitional housing in 2025. Members of a City Council committee got an update last week. The Hope Homeless Center is expected to open the 72-bed addition in February. 24 of those beds will be set aside for homeless veterans. Hope Center CEO Jeff Crook said the $7 million project seeks to meet the need of moving from the streets to a shelter, to an apartment, or a house. “There’s a major gap in terms of what’s needed for the class we work with at the emergency shelter to get them prepared to move into permanent housing and be stable enough to remain in permanent housing,” said Crook. Federal rescue dollars helped cover the cost of the project. Those ARPA funds could not be used to expand emergency shelter capacity. Housing Advocacy Commissioner Charlie Lanter said by moving some people into transitional housing, that will free up emergency shelter beds. That sentiment was echoed by David Shadd, director of programs at the Hope Center. “It shortens the length of time in the emergency shelter, so effectively all of those, currently all those veterans are in the emergency shelter, so they will move into that space, but then also the transitional housing clients that are moving in there open space for other individuals who are in need of shelter,” said Shadd. Council Member Denise Gray said more needs to be done to reach out to homeless female veterans who might benefit from these services. Hear more about other efforts to help the homeless later this week on WEKU. ** WEKU is working hard to be a leading source for public service, and fact-based journalism. Monthly supporters are the top funding source for this growing nonprofit news organization. Please join others in your community who support WEKU by making your donation. The post Lexington homeless center to broaden transitional housing services in 2025 appeared first on The Lexington Times.