ASHLAND — As a strategy to help resolve the city’s homeless crisis, Mayor Alan DeBoer revealed Monday that he has bought the former Handyman Hardware building on Ashland Street for use as a social services center.

The center, which was first proposed nearly two years ago, could be run by the nonprofit Ashland Community Land Trust, and it might house a Salvation Army thrift store, apartments for the homeless, the Interfaith Care Community of Ashland, the Community Food Bank and other social agencies, DeBoer said.

However he cautioned that the project remains very preliminary.

"The Handyman building is just an idea and a dream," DeBoer said.

The outgoing mayor revealed the plan at an informal gathering where homeless people and their supporters, the newly formed Ashland Homeless Alliance, proposed a very different vision — a permanent, free, homeless campground located in Ashland.

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The two projects are not connected, although they address the same issue, DeBoer noted.

DeBoer said AHA’s homeless camp, modeled on Portland’s Dignity Village, isn’t likely to find support in Ashland or be able to satisfy building codes.

"My focus is on how can we help people get back in the mainstream and moving toward the American dream of job, home and self-sufficiency," he said.

DeBoer bought the vacant building at 2200 Ashland St., near the railroad overpass, for $525,000 in February. He hopes to sell it for less than that to the Land Trust, which could become a central agency administering the city’s affordable housing projects.

AHA will present its homeless camp proposal to the Ashland Housing Commission today. It will suggest an array of possible sites on city-owned land, forestland or private land for "a peaceful self- governed community, using sustainable building techniques and promoting safety, health and self-sufficiency for all who are in need of the comfort of home," said member Taylor Kohn, manager of South Valley Community Human Services in Ashland.

The meeting is at 4 p.m. in the city’s Community Development Building on Winburn Way.

DeBoer on Friday submitted pre-application plans to the city for the center, which he plans to expand to three stories at a cost of $2.5 million. The project could be funded in part by $190,000 a year in Community Development Block Grants and by the sale of city-owned land at the top of Strawberry Lane, worth more than $1 million, he said. The ICCA, a possible tenant, could also support the project by sale of its Second Street property, he noted.

DeBoer said the preliminary plan is "pretty incomplete" and added it will have to address issues surrounding tri-level construction and parking.

Several nonprofit agencies have expressed interest in the center. Sharon Schreiber, director of the ICCA, was surprised at the sudden announcement of the project.

"We were interested in making sure the building was purchased and that’s been touch-and-go," she said.

Jennifer Henderson, board president of the Ashland Community Land Trust, said the trust would "absolutely love to participate" but has not yet begun talks with DeBoer.

John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland.E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.