A day of reckoning looms for the Salvation Army, which is facing a tough decision over its deteriorating emergency housing complex at the northeast edge of Hamilton.

Such is the quandary that Major Frank Pittman, Bermuda’s divisional commander, took the step of convening an invitation-only brainstorming session for yesterday to get all possible options on the table for the cash-strapped charity.

While the Government has donated the Bishop Spencer School building on Glebe Road as a possible alternative to the old Marsh Lane facility, area MP Rolfe Commissiong told The Royal Gazette that the plan appeared to be “completely stalled”.

“We have a winter that will be soon upon us, and this facility needs to be fit for purpose in terms of being habitable.

“As of right now, it is not. Frankly, my patience has run out.”

Mr Commissiong said he had raised the issue in conversation last year with Craig Cannonier, the Minister of Public Works, who had assured him a move out of Marsh Lane was a matter of months away.

“I have been quiet on this issue for just over a year and in good conscience I can no longer do so,” Mr Commissiong said, citing holes in floors, structural breaches, windows and doors in need of repair and a lack of cleaning staff. A drain near the kitchen “regularly overflows with rain”, he added. “Now we have a storm coming. Remember, not every resident is young; some of them are getting up in age. Even if the Bishop Spencer deal does go through, it is highly unlikely that the first clients will move out of there before next summer.”

In the meantime, he said, Marsh Lane residents deserve “a minimum investment in making the current site borderline habitable”.

The Bishop Spencer move was first proposed in June 2014, but the new building would require substantial repairs that the Salvation Army would have to cover. Major Pittman said that he was not getting complaints about the emergency complex, and issues such as broken windows were dealt with as quickly as possible.

“We try to keep the place as humanly livable as we can, which is difficult, considering its age. While the Government has said we can move to Bishop Spencer, there is no money to go with it. That puts us between a rock and a hard place.”

Yesterday’s summit, which Major Pittman termed a “charrette”, included community partners and clients to get the best cross-section of stakeholders.

“What can we do differently?” he asked. “Is Bishop Spencer even the place for us to be? Is there somewhere else available?” While the Glebe Road building is about double the size of the present emergency housing, Major Pittman said the Salvation Army had to evaluate any spending commitments “very carefully” in light of the charity’s other commitments, such as the Harbour Light Centre initiative for clients with substance abuse problems. No response was received by press time to a request to Public Works for an update on its memorandum of understanding with the Salvation Army on the move to a new premises.

Meanwhile, Mr Commissiong said he was particularly troubled after a takenote motion in Parliament by his colleague MP Michael Weeks on homelessness in Bermuda, which “graphically” laid out the island’s challenges.

“To find that the Government is not keeping its end of the bargain, at the very least ensuring that the facility or shelter at North Street is habitable, is pretty hard to take,” he said.

“I again challenge Mr Cannonier and the Premier, Michael Dunkley, to get this right. The investment to remedy the situation that will be required is modest in terms of dollars but it will go a long way to improve the quality of life at the shelter for the men and women who need it most.

“Lastly, I commend the Salvation Army for trying to keep its end of the bargain as it relates to these men and women at the shelter. This country owes them a great debt of gratitude, as in most advanced and affluent countries around the world, these types of services on behalf of the homeless would be the primary responsibility of the state or government.”