Metro Care and Share desperate for a space for thrift store

HALIFAX – A well known Halifax humanitarian is looking for a new place to set up his charity work.

Mel Boutilier launched the Metro Care and Share Society on Agricola Street in Halifax about a year ago, but the society is in desperate need of a new space.

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Boutilier is asking for anyone in the community who has a space the society can use to please come forward. The Metro Care and Share Society needs to be out of their current building by the end of December.

“When we came here a year ago, in August, we had the understanding that there wouldn’t be any development here for perhaps three years,” Boutilier told Global News.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "When we came here a year ago, in August, we had the understanding that there wouldn't be any development here for perhaps three years," Boutilier told Global News.

“Now that’s been moved up. The owners are have a design to build an apartment building here.”

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Sales from the store go to support various programs that Mel Boutilier and his staff run from the thrift store, including funding tuition for young people in the local community.

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Solitha Shortte, the Marketing Director for the Metro Care and Share, says it doesn’t make sense for the society to stay in their current building past the end of the month.

“For us, bearing the cost of the winter, where traffic goes down so we’re not going to see as much foot traffic in the shop and that’s what we depend on to keep the space going,” she said.

“Long story short, we can’t afford to stay here for the winter and then move in the spring or the summer, so we made a decision to move out before the winter hits,” said Shortte.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Long story short, we can't afford to stay here for the winter and then move in the spring or the summer, so we made a decision to move out before the winter hits," said Shortte.

The Metro Care and Share Society is hoping to find a space with enough storage to store all the belongings they currently have in the store, plus any incoming donations that they may receive to help Syrian refugees coming to Halifax set up their new homes.