The First, a daytime shelter offering public bathrooms, showers and laundry, is not officially open despite Facebook posts that are circulating on city pages. The space is having a soft opening on reduced hours.

PITTSFIELD — The city’s newest housing resource center and daytime shelter, The First, is close to opening but not yet fully operational, housing officials said.

The space at 74 First St. is currently open during limited hours and days in what ServiceNet is calling a "soft opening" for the center, said Erin Forbush, the senior director of shelter and housing for ServiceNet.

The daytime warming center located in Zion Lutheran Church was unveiled last December.

However, a Facebook post circulating online created by a ServiceNet employee at the center has caused some confusion and concern among residents and housing advocates who say the shelter should be open seven days a week — which Forbush said is the plan once it officially opens.

Right now, The First is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Although an official date has not been set, the opening should be coming in two to three weeks, Forbush said.

The Facebook graphic, originally posted by a ServiceNet employee and reposted by Mayor Peter Marchetti, was not an official announcement of the space opening, ServicNet officials said.

The Facebook post, created by an employee and later reposted by Mayor Peter Marchetti, advertised the limited hours without noting that the center was in a soft-opening phase.

"It is our understanding that through conversations with ServiceNet, there is a longer-term plan to have the First open seven days a week once they secure and train additional staff," a representative for Marchetti's office said.

Although The First is not open on Sundays as of now, the city has opened up the Berkshire Athenaeum and the Ralph J. Froio Senior Center, a representative for Marchetti's office said.

The construction took more than four years and was funded by the city of Pittsfield's American Rescue Act Plan funding. It cost $3 million to build.

The First was part of a trio of projects unveiled by Hearthway, a local nonprofit housing developer and manager, in the Pittsfield area this past December, which brought 39 permanent supportive units to the city on top of the daytime warming center.