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Hope Mission won the right Wednesday to tear down and rebuild the 63-year-old Herb Jamieson Centre, despite community concerns the concentration of homeless services is damaging the neighbourhood.

A decision from the city’s arm’s-length subdivision and development appeal board gives the not-for-profit agency the right to rebuild a structure with cots for 400 men at the 100 Street and 105A Avenue site.

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But officials still need to raise $5.5 million more in private donations, plus convince government officials a matching $8-million investment is worthwhile.

“We really need housing for people, not mats,” said McCauley Community League president Phil O’Hara, promising to lobby against any funding that would keep Edmonton’s shelters and homeless facilities concentrated in his neighbourhood.

At the appeal board meeting Wednesday, Hope Mission officials argued a new $16-million facility would improve safety by creating a new open concept inside with clear sight lines to the washrooms for staff and the men sleeping there. It would also add boulevard trees to an otherwise barren street scape, add large office windows along the street and include a rooftop garden for the men.