Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Mike Thompson, U.S. Army sergeant first lass (retired), program manager of Veteran’s Haven, gives remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony Monday for a new housing complex for homeless veterans at Hillman Street and West Warren Avenue on the South Side. The $1.2 million facility will be built largely with shipping containers.

YOUNGSTOWN — Shipping containers are known by several other names, but whatever they’re called, they also can be referred to as material to help rebuild the lives of many struggling veterans.

“In 10 months, this will be a building on solid ground,” Nathan Chambers, the veterans services director for Family & Community Services, a Ravenna-based social services agency, said.

He was referring to Veteran’s Haven, a one-story structure that will be built at Hillman Street and West Warren Avenue on the South Side to provide temporary housing for 14 men and women veterans who are homeless. Family & Community Services is developing Veteran’s Haven.

Chambers was among those who spoke at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday morning to celebrate the $1.2 million facility that will be built largely with shipping containers. About 100 elected officials, religious and community leaders and others attended.

The facility will have 14 bedrooms, one for each veteran, equipped with its own restroom that’s “sort of like a hotel room,” Chambers explained.

In addition, Veteran’s Haven will include a kitchen to allow those staying there to prepare their own meals, along with a commons area and meeting rooms for them to meet confidentially with social workers, mental health experts and others, Chambers said. He added that staff, including independent case managers, will be on-site as well.

During their stay, the veterans will have opportunities to receive mental health services and learn financial literacy and budgeting, he continued.

“It goes a long way toward helping the veterans feel at home. Veterans are affected by homelessness at a disproportionate rate,” Chambers said, noting that they comprise about 1% of the U.S. population.

In addition, Veteran’s Haven will have outdoor space for them to socialize, Chambers explained.

The building also is part of a larger effort to revitalize and rebuild much of the city — and something that “will bring this site back to life,” city Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, said.

“One of the biggest things we need in this city is to rebuild” buildings and people, including those who served their country, Oliver, who is a U.S. Army veteran, added.

“We have to take care of the people in our community. We have to meet people where they are,” Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said. “We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti expressed gratitude for the partnerships formed to make the project possible. For their part, commissioners donated $150,000 in county American Rescue Plan dollars, and Oliver gave $100,000 from Youngstown’s ARP allocation.

“Let’s keep this moving; we have the momentum,” Rimedio-Righetti said.

Additional remarks came from Brandi Parker, Family & Community Services’ assistant director of veterans services.

Akron-based MXA Architecture is handling the building’s design and architectural work, A.J. Allshouse, project architect, said.

He added that the shipping containers will be used to build the private bedrooms and accompanying restrooms, and that standard wood construction also will go into the overall project.

Steel Valley Container Structures LLC of North Lima will manage the construction, which also includes fabricating the containers onsite, as well as certain aspects of the framing and flooring, Ed Macabobby Jr., company owner and president, noted.

Also at the ceremony, Sunrise Inn of Warren donated a $5,000 check to Veteran’s Haven. An additional $1,500 check was presented, the proceeds of which were from a recent 5K race.

Chambers said he hopes that after Veteran’s Haven is finished next year on one corner of Hillman Street and West Warren Avenue, adjacent vacant parcels will one day be used for similar purposes, such as adding permanent supportive housing for those who have served the nation.

“That would be the dream,” he added.