The Salvation Army’s McKenna House celebrated the completion of a major expansion Thursday, allowing the year-round emergency shelter to increase its capacity by 60 percent.

Beyond adding 16 beds for the city’s homeless residents, the 3,500-square-foot new wing on South Fruit Street will allow for streamlined and improved services, Capt. Stephen Warren said.

For instance, before the $675,000 upgrade, there was no single space large enough for all 26 residents to gather together in the old home that was donated in the 1980s by Edna McKenna and converted into its present use.

That meant meetings – from financial literacy to Alcoholics Anonymous – were fractured or held off-site, Warren said.

“Often what we experienced is one person will go to one class in one agency, and one person will go to a class in a different place, and it’s almost like they’re fighting over what they learned,” he said, “because they heard different things.”

To alleviate that, the new wing includes a large meeting space on the lower floor, below the new men’s and women’s dormitories, in addition to more storage.

Now, Warren said, “We not only have a program designed for the individuals in it – we now have a space designed for the program and the individuals.”

Group meetings were only one of the hang-ups of a retrofitted space. In the old format, the second-floor women’s dormitory was inaccessible to people who couldn’t climb stairs; there was no sprinkler system; and the dining area was divided between three rooms.

All those problems have been solved with the addition, which will accommodate 13 women and 29 men in all. The old men’s dormitory will be converted to a dining hall that can seat up to 46 people, Warren said.

“As it was before, it was never able to have people in the same room all at the same time,” he said.

The capacity increase – from 26 beds to 42 – will also take a step toward stemming the overflow of calls the McKenna House receives from prospective residents. It has been forced to turn away as many as 10 residents a day in the past, said Bill Davis, the chairman of its advisory board.

Speaking to a crowd gathered to see the new building Thursday, two former residents, Anne Wilcox and Art Trottier, told the story of how they regained their footing there after falling on tough times.

At their low points, they each said they “lost everything.” Trottier, a commercial truck driver, said he lost his vehicle and job amid an ugly divorce, and Wilcox, a graphic designer, said she was convicted of driving while intoxicated.

“I owned my own business for 25 years. I had a house. And all of a sudden it’s all gone,” Wilcox said.

When he had nowhere else to turn, Trottier arrived at McKenna House in December of 2012. Wilcox arrived a few months later and they met amid the scent of a double-batch of brownies Wilcox baked in the oven.

“Before I got here, I was simply existing. Whereas with my time here, it taught me how to live again,” she said.

“When I first came in here, my life felt like a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. I had no idea what piece to put in and get started,” he said.

But they each started to lay a new foundation for their lives. Trottier, who said he could only find “back-breaking” labor work otherwise, got a job working at the Salvation Army store, and so did Wilcox, who’s now sober.

By October 2013, they moved out, and they’ve been happily living together since.

“We realized that two are better than one, and it would be better off if we joined forces, got an apartment together and begin our life again together,” she said.

“I owe a lot of gratitude for this house and the store,” he added.

Wilcox said she was impressed after touring the new facility and hoped more people in the future would be able to tell stories like hers.

“This gave us a solid base to catch our breath and say, ‘Where do I go from here?’ ” she said.

Warren said seeing the product of everyone’s hard work at the dedication made it “probably one of my best days since being here.”

(Nick Reid can be reached 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @NickBReid.)

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