Selwyn College is preparing to have an almost 30m-long temporary building installed at 798 Cumberland St.
The four flats on the site are owned by the All Saints’ Anglican Church.
Three of the flats on the site were used by the Salvation Army for emergency housing and one was used for student accommodation by Selwyn College.
The new temporary building will feature 14 bedrooms.
It will be pre-built in Christchurch before being relocated to the site.
A ceremony was held by the church earlier this month to farewell the flats.
Dunedin North Anglican parish vicar the Rev Canon Michael Wallace said preliminary work had started at the site, such as checking for asbestos.
Demolition would begin in the next few weeks.
Selwyn College chairwoman Anne Stevens said the temporary housing was necessary to accommodate students while renovations were done on the college.
The college was paying for the demolition of the flats and once it no longer needed the temporary housing the church would use the space for its needs, she said.
The buildings were all ‘‘a bit past their use-by dates’’ and it did not make sense to continue ‘‘pouring money’’ into old housing when new, better-suited facilities could be built on the land.
Renovations were expected to last no longer than two years.
