MANKATO — The need for more room for a growing seminary has the Theresa House homeless shelter looking for a new home.

The Theresa House Shelter, run by St. Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church since 1996, has been given until 2010 to relocate.

The Institute of the Incarnate Word — the Catholic order of priests that moved in after the Jesuits left last year — operates the building at 512 Mulberry St. and has decided it needs the space for its growing seminary.

Seminary students now share the space with the Theresa House. But demand for entry into the order’s seminary program — which is essentially a boarding school for high school-age boys — has been heavy. In its initial year, they planned for a maximum of nine students. Instead, 12 students applied. All of them met the seminary’s requirements.

“The church was astounded by the response,” said Chris Walchuk, parish administrator. “And this is where it got difficult.”

Because seminary students must be housed on the parish campus, and because the need for priests in rural America has reached the emergency stage, the order decided to use the available space in the building for the seminary. The work of Theresa House, it concluded, wasn’t dependent upon a specific location.

Pam Bartholomew, Theresa House director, said she’s worried about the status of homeless people in Mankato, and worries what the impact on the area would be if the Theresa House Shelter disappeared.

“We are a community resource,” Bartholomew said. “Most of the people we serve are from the Mankato area.”

Bartholomew said she’s seeing more people living in dangerous homeless situations, including a woman who, while living in her vehicle, recently was attacked by four men in the middle of the night.

She’d been a homeowner all her adult life, Bartholomew said. That woman had previously chosen to not seek shelter. Her late-night incident changed her mind and she sought shelter at Theresa House.

“Things are happening to people that they never would have expected,” she said. “The families we take are people coming out of dire straits.”

Bartholomew said she’s grateful to the church for giving Theresa House a home for 11 years, and thankful to the order for allowing it to stay. But she’s concerned for the homeless in the community, and hopes the community steps up to help Theresa House relocate.

“Mankato’s a great place to live and work together and we’re blessed with volunteers and donations,” she said. “But without some extra help, what’s going to happen to Theresa House? We really don’t know.”

Walchuk, one of the founders of Theresa House, said the Theresa House remains a critical part of the parish’s work. He said the church’s intention is not to abandon the shelter and the people it serves, but to find a new location.

That could mean an existing building suitable for carrying out the shelter’s needs, or a new building. Walchuk said there are a few buildings being considered for relocation. Building new could cost several million dollars.

“In some shape or form, there will be a Theresa House,” Walchuk said. “SS. Pete’s and Paul’s will financially back Theresa House wherever it goes.”

Theresa House is one of several homeless shelters in Mankato, but it fills a unique niche: It accepts women and children only, but will also accept men who are part of a family unit.

In the last fiscal year it provided emergency housing for 43 adults and 53 children. It turned away 835 adults and children because the shelter didn’t have room.

When Theresa House moves, the arrangement the shelter has with the church will undoubtedly change.

Today, if the roof leaks, the church makes the phone calls and gets it fixed. Employee payroll work is done by the church. The church also provides the shelter’s employees with health insurance.

How all that will work in the future is unknown.

“Finding the initial money to build a place might be the easiest part,” Walchuk said. “Churches and communities tend to do emergencies very well. Sustaining something over the long haul is much more difficult.”