Health Minister Patrice Minors has hit back over reports of poor conditions at the Salvation Army hostel, saying she is ?fed up? with the charity?s requests for more cash.

Mrs. Minors, whose Ministry funds services at the shelter, plans to invite other agencies to tender to run it amid ?concerns? about the Salvation Army.reported last week how the shelter on Marsh Lane ? the only one of its kind on the Island ? has major problems with its rotting 30-year-old structure.

Gaping holes have appeared in the flimsy plywood walls of the building, and chunks of the roof have caved in along with the rotten floors.

Major Lindsay Rowe, Divisional Commander of the Salvation Army in Bermuda, said the dangerous building should be condemned, and called for a funding hike, saying that the $30,000 budget increase last year only covered rising living costs.

He also warned that the life-saving Harbour Lights project run by the Salvation Army for homeless addicts could fold without extra Government cash.

Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson, who called for urgent action after touring the shelter last week, repeated her concerns to the House of Assembly early on Saturday morning.

Replying to this, an angry Mrs. Minors questioned the calls for extra funds for the shelter and Harbour Lights.

?When I visited there (the shelter) over a year ago I asked if they took any fee from the persons that are there, because they do have the ability to raise some income. The answer was ?if you want me to,? she said.

?I?m getting a bit fed up that every year ? and no disrespect to the Salvation Army ? these little campaigns start to get their funds increased.?

The Minister said she believed that ten percent of the funds given to the Salvation Army to provide services at the centre are sent abroad.

She accused the Salvation Army, through publicity about Harbour Lights and the shelter, of trying to ?repeatedly force our hands? and said that other issues needed funds too.

?We were so concerned with the programme that?s being tendered there (at the shelter) that it?s going to go out to tender. It?s always been run by the Salvation Army. If other people feel they can provide the service we will ask them to tender as we are very concerned with the programme there,? she said.

Responding to the Health Minister?s comments, Major Rowe told ?None of the comments made have been passed on to us personally at the Salvation Army. If this is being said to the House and not to us it doesn?t give us chance to address them, so I am a little disconcerted about that.

?The suggestion that ten percent of our funds are being sent off the Island is a lie that someone is perpetuating. One hundred percent of funds raised in Bermuda stay in Bermuda to help the poor.?

Major Rowe said he understood that when the Government builds the new shelter for the homeless announced in this year?s Throne Speech, the management would be put out to tender despite the Salvation Army?s expertise in this field. And he added that the recent publicity surrounding the existing shelter had not been initiated by the charity but had come as the result of a request to tour it from Louise Jackson.

?That was not a ploy on our part to get more funds, but I cannot deny the fact that we are in extreme difficulty, especially with Harbour Lights.

?It?s a bit of a mystery to me why Mrs. Minors doesn?t recognise that the Salvation Army can provide a great service to the community with Government support.?