Virginia Beach has been trying to move the Lighthouse Center, a day program for homeless adults located on 18th Street and Washington Avenue, since 2009. After years of planning by the city’s housing development administrator Karen Prochilo, the Homeless Center is taking place.

The Homeless Center will replace the Lighthouse Center, which will become a parking lot near the sports and entertainment arena on track to open in late 2018.

Planning for the construction of the building will occur over the course of this year, and the center itself is set to open in January of 2018. The facility will include three different styles of overnight housing, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and will be LGBT friendly.

The new center will be located on Witchduck Road and will make it easier for the city to distribute food, clothes, and medicine within one consolidated facility.