A local veterans counseling agency is looking at the city-owned GAR Hall as a possible site for homeless transitional housing. North Shore Veterans Counseling Services has been searching for years for a good place to set up the housing, which would get homeless veterans back in a home. “We are looking around for a building to do housing,” said Lynn Moran, executive director of the counseling agency. “We are just in the beginning stages of looking for property.” Currently, the group doesn’t own or operate any housing, she said. Moran said the group eyed the GAR Hall because the city has considered selling it and it must be used for veterans. “We would be an organization that fits that profile,” she said. North Shore Veterans Counseling Services is headquartered in the Cummings Center and helps veterans with everything from employment training to benefits help for veterans on the North Shore. It isn’t clear how much work it would take to make the GAR Hall into housing. The building would likely need a “total rehab,” she said, but an architect or engineer has not looked at it and the group hasn’t considered whether it might want to instead tear it down. The group once considered a housing project at the former Danvers State Hospital but decided against it because it wasn’t near public transportation. The GAR Hall is downtown and near services and public transportation. Mayor Bill Scanlon first proposed selling the GAR Hall three yea ...
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A local veterans counseling agency is looking at the city-owned GAR Hall as a possible site for homeless transitional housing. North Shore Veterans Counseling Services has been searching for years for a good place to set up the housing, which would get homeless veterans back in a home. “We are looking around for a building to do housing,” said Lynn Moran, executive director of the counseling agency. “We are just in the beginning stages of looking for property.” Currently, the group doesn’t own or operate any housing, she said. Moran said the group eyed the GAR Hall because the city has considered selling it and it must be used for veterans. “We would be an organization that fits that profile,” she said. North Shore Veterans Counseling Services is headquartered in the Cummings Center and helps veterans with everything from employment training to benefits help for veterans on the North Shore. It isn’t clear how much work it would take to make the GAR Hall into housing. The building would likely need a “total rehab,” she said, but an architect or engineer has not looked at it and the group hasn’t considered whether it might want to instead tear it down. The group once considered a housing project at the former Danvers State Hospital but decided against it because it wasn’t near public transportation. The GAR Hall is downtown and near services and public transportation. Mayor Bill Scanlon first proposed selling the GAR Hall three yea ...