Capital campaign launched for new homeless shelter in Ogden

Intermountain Catholic

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Lt. Gov. Greg Bell speaks at the capital campaign kickoff for the Lantern House, which will be the name of the new homeless shelter in Ogden that will contain the St. Anne's kitchen. Community activist Pamela Atkinson (seated) also was among the speakers at the event.  IC photo/Marie Mischel

OGDEN — With more families than ever before facing homelessness, St. Anne’s Center in Ogden is hoping to move to a new, expanded facility that they plan to build on land donated by the city at Pacific and 33rd streets. The capital campaign, with a goal of $7 million, kicked off on June 29. The new shelter will be known as the Lantern House to reflect the community involvement.

"A lot of people say, ‘St. Anne’s? Oh, that must be a Catholic institution,’" said Holy Cross Sister Joseph Cecile Voelker, a pastoral associate at Saint Joseph Parish who chaired the St. Anne’s Center board for five years and remains on the board. However, the center is a nondenominational nonprofit organization, and the initial donation for the new building came a year ago from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; the Eccles Foundation recently put up a $1 million matching grant.

The new shelter is needed because of the growing need and changing character of those it serves. When St. Anne’s was built in 1995 it served mostly single men.

"Now it’s families," Sr. Joseph Cecile said, "and we have only three small family rooms. We put three to four families in one small room."

The shelter also provides more than 52,000 hot lunches a year. The new building will have more family rooms and office space; the kitchen will be known as Saint Anne’s kitchen.

Among the dignitaries who attended the kickoff were the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City; Lt. Gov. Greg Bell, Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey, city council members and commissioners from Weber and Davis counties, as well as a number of other church leaders.

"Currently we have the support of many churches and many community organizations," said Kay Lipman, who with her husband, Allan, chairs the capital campaign committee. "Our goal is to provide essential services and support to all those who come to Lantern House. We need the help of the entire community. It takes a lot of people working together toward a common goal to bring about something great."