Local nonprofit Mountain of Faith Ministries has been approved by the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals to renovate the building at 1529 Walnut St. and operate there a 24-bed affordable, transitional living facility to service Warren County’s homeless population, Zoning Administrator Dalton McCarty said.

He said the organization was given 12 months to complete the renovations and begin operations.

Executive Director Tina Hayward said her organization is applying for two grants, which will determine whom the facility can assist.

“Transitional living is the next step after an emergency,” she said. “Warren County has no transitional living facility. We have a lot of people in the streets, and they can’t afford to go into an apartment.”

She declined to identify the grants.

About 10,000 square feet of the building’s 17,000 square feet will be rehabilitated into separate living quarters, Hayward said, where tenants will have up to 24 months to complete a program that includes working with a life coach, financial manager and affordable housing manager.

The program is aimed to help homeless people find a permanent solution to their situation, Hayward added.

In Warren County, the homeless population this year is 117, according to a U.S. census report called 2011 Point-in-Place Count, which was released in January.

The potential transitional facility will require tenants to pay a nominal rent, which will be used to help operate the program, Hayward said.

“The tenants must have some form of income,” she said.

Additionally, the program will operate through grant funds and proceeds collected from the onsite thrift store, Finder’s Keepers.

The Walnut Street building, owned by 1529 Walnut LLC, housed a Piggly-Wiggly Super Market from the 1940s to the mid-1970s and The Office Supply Store Inc. for some years.

It also has served as office space for various businesses and organizations, including the Vicksburg Child Abuse Prevention Center, which operated there from 2005 until last year. Canufly Internet Service Provider currently operates there.

In other business, the zoning board denied a variance to Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant to erect a 171-square-foot freestanding sign on the lot at 4207 E. Clay St.

The request was denied because the restaurant was unable to prove any hardship without the sign, McCarty said.

Also, Sue Seratt was granted a special exception to operate a home tour business at 909 Cherry St.