The Grand Haven Salvation Army broke ground Thursday on a new emergency shelter project called "New Beginnings," aimed at addressing a housing crisis that has left around 300 students in the Grand Haven Public School District without stable housing on any given day.
WATCH: Grand Haven Salvation Army breaks ground on emergency shelter amid housing crisis
The project will bring 56 new beds across a ground-level duplex and a single-family home two doors away, both fully ADA accessible. The two structures will replace a pair of 100-year-old homes on the site.
Ottawa County Board of Commissioners Chairman Josh Brugger, who is also serving as general contractor through his company Brugger House Builders, said the need is deeply personal.
"20 years ago, when my family ran through some hard economic times, I actually remember standing in the food line outside of St. Pat's Church, just right here in Grand Haven," Brugger said.
Ottawa County faces a housing shortage of close to 16,000 units, a deficit that ripples directly into local schools.
Rebecca Lippard, the Salvation Army's social service coordinator, said the district's homeless student population reflects that broader crisis.
"Grand Haven School District had between 270 and 300 students that were not housed, and that could be that they're sleeping outside at the shelter or they're couch surfing with other people," Lippard said.
That figure comes from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Program, which tracks homelessness among school-aged children.
The Salvation Army previously operated emergency housing at the site, but a catastrophic plumbing failure in 2023 ended those services.
"The water line broke, it literally destroyed the whole house, it ran for four days before we knew it, so everything collapsed in," Lippard said. "At the same time, we were told by two of our funding state funding programs that because we were not ADA compliant, they would no longer fund us and so we were at the cusp of just shutting down."
Three years later, the nonprofit is moving forward. The project is funded in part by a $1.5 million grant from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, along with contributions from several community partners and individual neighbors. Total costs have reached just over $2.3 million, with roughly $300,000 still needed.
"There's going to be opportunities for people to do physical labor, if they want to help paint or do landscaping or put up siding," Lippard said. [Brugger's] going to have opportunities that will save us money during Christmas time, when we do the bells, we ring at stores, volunteer to ring at stores, that stays in our community, 100% of it stays here."
Lippard said the groundbreaking marks a turning point after years of setbacks.
"It's just three years, like Colonel Steve said, it's not the end, this is our beginning. So we're excited, like we just made it to the finish, you know, up to the start line," Lippard said.
For Brugger, the project is a chance to give back to the community that once supported his own family.
"I'm overwhelmed that God would take us from a place where we were, you know, struggling to a place where we're in a position to give back as a family," Brugger said. "The community coming together for people like me and my family 20 years ago, this is an awesome opportunity for me to give back."
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