The Salem Mission will convert the former rectory of St. Mary’s (pictured), a Catholic church that was closed in 2003, and a nearby apartment building into 22 single-room occupancy units for formerly homeless adults.

A nonprofit organization that transformed part of a former Catholic church in Salem into a 24-hour emergency homeless shelter is poised to start construction in upcoming weeks on 22 single-room occupancy units for homeless individuals.

The Salem Mission will convert the former rectory of St. Mary’s, which was shuttered by the Archdiocese of Boston nearly four years ago, and a nearby apartment building into the so-called SRO units. The units, which will be 250 to 300 square feet, will be designed for chronically homeless men and women who are earning less than 30 percent of the area median income. Residents will be provided with support services, including visits three days a week from nurses and other health professionals.

It is the first time that Salem Mission, which started as an outreach ministry of the former Crombie Street Congregational Church some 22 years ago to provide food to the needy, is creating housing units.

“[The project] represents probably a sea change in our philosophy of shifting from providing compassionate emergency services to helping people move on with their lives,” said George Delaney, who became executive director the Salem Mission a year ago.

The mission’s goal, according to Delaney, is to move people beyond the emergency services as quickly as possible, into supportive housing and ultimately into independent living environments.

“Although [the SROs] are defined as permanent housing, I doubt that many of the guests would ultimately make it their permanent home,” he said.

Single-room occupancy units are typically a temporary and inexpensive housing choice for poor single adults struggling to secure more permanent housing. Oftentimes homeless people who have low-paying jobs or receive state assistance are placed into SROs.

The units typically are located in a building that includes shared kitchen – and sometimes bathroom – facilities, for the residents.

“It’s a very important housing resource for single adults who are low-income,” said Naomi Sweitzer, assistant executive director of HomeStart Inc., a Boston-based organization that helps homeless people in Greater Boston obtain housing.

But Sweitzer said that the stock of SRO units has been declining because lodging houses and rooming houses have been converted into apartments or condominiums over the years.

Only 2,417 units in Massachusetts are identified as SRO units, according to the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development subsidized housing inventory – which includes housing data that is provided by each Bay State town and city. Forty of those units are located in Salem, according to the state’s count.

Salem has 19 rooming houses with a total of 281 rooms, according to the city’s building inspector’s office. That count includes both SROs and a number of government-run group homes.

There are not enough transitional and supportive housing units – such as SRO units – to accommodate the homeless population on the North Shore, according to a five-year consolidated plan issued last year by the North Shore HOME Consortium, a group of 30 communities in northeastern Massachusetts including Salem and Peabody that determines how federal housing funds are used regionally.

Seeds of Hope
In the next few weeks, Salem Mission hopes to begin the process of adding 22 more SRO units to the region. The mission purchased and moved to the former St. Mary’s campus, a four-building property on Margin Street, two years ago after it outgrew its space on Crombie Street.

The group converted a former youth center on the property, which it is now calling the Seeds of Hope Campus, into a 34-bed emergency shelter for men and women. The mission, which is no longer formally affiliated with a church, began using the lower level of the church as a thrift store last year.

The mission is now ready to convert the remaining buildings – the five-floor rectory and a three-unit apartment building on Endicott Street – into the 22 SRO units.

Delaney said residents will share a kitchen and have access to the mission’s other on-site services, including educational programs, a food pantry that serves 1,200 households a month and a community meals program that feeds over 300 people daily.

Three times a week, residents also will be able to receive counseling and other types of health services from healthcare professionals from the North Shore Medical Center and Tri-City Mental Health, a Lynn-based agency.

The renovation project, which will cost more than $1 million, has received a $175,932 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, as well as more than $2 million in financing from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and state Department of Housing and Community Development.