The David Busby Street Centre has been helping people in need for more than 20 years - but now it's being forced out of the church where it's been housed.

Executive director Sara Peddle says they'll continue to help people, but as of July 31 they'll have to do it somewhere else.

Trinity Anglican, the church that owns the building, is taking back the space.

“I'm not sure what the plans Trinity has for the space,” Peddle says, “but they have been fantastic to us for 21 years and we're grateful to the congregation and church.”

In 1993, the minister at Trinity Anglican, Rev. Canon David Busby, and Mandy Hillyard, a registered nurse, teamed up to create the Busby Street Centre in the church basement downtown.

And Peddle says the shelter needs to stay downtown. She says they're looking at properties and a new larger, wheel-chair accessible location would be great.

However, the shelter hasn’t found a place yet.

The centre helps about 150 clients a day, 38,000 clients a year and many of those clients say the work they do is invaluable.

“I think these guys are a very big part of the community, they help people who don't have anything,” says Tanya.

She says whether the Busby is helping with healthcare, housing, or a meal, the centre’s workers do it well.

“They do good work, they've been a big help in my life, they try to point you in the right direction,” she says.

Trinity Anglican Church representatives weren’t available for an on-camera interview, but say the church has no plans for the space once the Busby Centre is gone.

They went on to say they're proud of the work the shelter has done, but because of the growing number of people the centre is helping the church has concerns about maintaining the structure of the building.

Robert is a client who says he's sure it will all work out, and wherever the new Busby Centre is, he'll sweep the front of the new location four times a day, just like he’s done on Collier Street for the past two years.

“I'm going to keep on cleaning up cigarette butts for them because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be in the house we're in, the townhouse,” he says.