Simonka Place renovation will add space for 11 homeless women, children

The repairs at Simonka Place, the Salem-Keizer area’s oldest operating women’s shelter, have become perpetual.

The home shelters dozens of families in need each year in an unassuming building off River Road in Keizer. The decades-old building is past due for an upgrade, said Dan Clem, executive director of Union Gospel Mission, which runs the shelter.

“It’s kind of like your car. You spend so much on it, you go: okay, time for something a…