The largest men's homeless shelter in Salem is leaving downtown at the same time a broader city push is attempting to reduce the visibility of the homeless in the city's core while getting resources to the most vulnerable.

The Union Gospel Mission of Salem's shelter will move about half a mile north on Commercial Street NE across from where the new police headquarters will be built on the old O'Brien Auto Group lot.

The shelter and police offices should open around the same time, with the shelter's ground-breaking expected sometime in 2019 and the police station construction finishing in 2020.

Recent developments to reduce downtown concentrations of the homeless include:

Salem officials are in the midst of trying to get the city's "most vulnerable" homeless people into housing with a multi-million-dollar homeless rental assistance program.

In September, city officials tried and failed to pass an ordinance to bar homeless people from sitting and lying on Salem sidewalks during the day, under threat of citation and removal by police. The Salem City Council rejected the proposal after an outpouring of public criticism.

City officials say benches were removed earlier this year from downtown and a walkway between Marion and Center streets NE after they were being used for camping. The removals were "a last resort," said city spokesman Kenny Larson, coming in response to complaints and unsuccessful efforts "to encourage people to not camp on the benches."

Some business owners have expressed that, while they're compassionate toward the homeless, they worry customers are uncomfortable with navigating around the homeless. The Union Gospel Mission men's shelter is located near many downtown shops.

Fundraising for the mission's relocation is underway, Executive Director Dan Clem said. The existing shelter will be sold.

Clem, former chief executive of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, said he was joining an effort to move the shelter that's years in the making.

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With the shelter's relocation will come an increase in the number of men the shelter serves. The move is aimed at keeping up with an uptick in city homeless rates.

“We’re trying to build for what Salem will need," Clem said.

Slightly more than 1,150 people were considered homeless in Marion and Polk counties in 2017, up from 856 in 2016, according to point-in-time counts from the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency.

The real tally could be higher. The most recent data from the Oregon Department of Education show as many as 1,120 students were homeless in the Salem-Keizer School District.

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Right now, the men's shelter serves 150 men. The new location will be able to serve more than 300, Clem said. Plus, extra room on the floor means mats can be laid out to account for overflow.

The new shelter will boost that capacity to accommodate a few hundred additional people, he said.

Reach reporter Jonathan Bach by email at jbach@statesmanjournal.com or by phone at 503-399-6714. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanMBach and Facebook at www.facebook.com/jonathanbachjournalist.