A NEW lease on life is on the books for Edgeworth Library, which is set to become a home base for St Vincent De Paul.
The charity will offer emergency relief, homelessness and housing support from the Minmi Road site.
The library is being decommissioned, ready for the opening of the Sugar Valley Library Museum early this year.
St Vincent De Paul is the top contender to move in, beating out The Canopy Inc, Edgeworth Memorial Neighbourhood Centre, Catapult Dance and Lake Mac Birth Movement in a vote at Lake Macquarie City Council this week.
The space would allow Vinnies to provide essential services to people in need, north-east regional director Clare Van Doorn said.
"We really want to create a welcoming space for people on that side of the lake to come in and look at the services we have or referral pathways we can offer," she said.
"When you look at where it's located, as well as the low socio-economic demographic, there are a lot of families.
"The people we need to support are in that area of Edgeworth because of the growth in housing, the biggest thing is to have a physical space where our volunteers can be visible so people know where we are."
The council voted this week to support a one-year lease with a four-year option at $3350 per annum.
St Vincent De Paul plans to improve access to critical social service support with its new hub, as the rising cost-of-living and housing stress hits Lake Macquarie residents.
It is hoped the new location will reduce the amount of travel needed to visit people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
While he was supportive of the concept, Cr Brian Adamthwaite voted against the proposal, arguing there should have been more community consultation.
"I have no doubt this is going to add value to the lake as a city community and also the local community," he said.
"But, we've mentioned a number of times tonight about how important community consultation is and given the fact the community was expecting to have some input into it - I think we may well have dropped the ball in this circumstance."
Library services will still be on offer from Edgeworth Library until the move to the Sugar Valley Library Museum.
St Vincent De Paul was chosen through an assessment panel.
The council will formally vote to approve the lease at the end of month.
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