Ferry Street Resource Center in Niles is working to find a new temporary location following a fire that destroyed its building last week. Director Ric Pawloski tells us he stood and watched the historic building at 620 Ferry Street burn. Since then, the organization has continued helping those in need while looking for a new home.
“I actually spent my entire day yesterday in Niles talking to different places about the possibilities of where we can be,” Pawloski said. “We have a couple of really good possibilities. Nothing that’s concrete now, so I can’t definitively say where we’re going to be, but my goal is that by the end of this month, I’ll know exactly where we’re going to be.”
Pawloski says the important thing is no one was hurt. Since the fire, the community has reached out to Ferry Street to ask how they can help.
“The two most notable things that were said that were interesting to me are people saying, ‘You’ve had the community all this time and now the community has you.’ That was very encouraging. And someone else pointed out we do a lot of work with homeless people, and they pointed out that now we’re homeless, and so they want to help us like we’ve been helping the homeless.”
The website is FerryStreet.org. Just click the Donate button to contribute. Anyone in need of Ferry Street’s services can still call and leave a message. Pawloski says they help people with housing, transportation, and finding work. He doesn’t yet know if they’ll ever move back into the same location, and thanks everyone who has expressed support since the fire.
