For the last 125 years, the Union Gospel Mission has worked to help the homeless in Tarrant County. But a recent rise in homeless women and families is forcing the mission to turn people away.
In an effort to change that the mission plans to expand at its East Lancaster Avenue location.
Every night, the mission provides 63 homeless men a place to sleep, but the mission has no over night beds for women. Women now make up 41-percent of Tarrant County's homeless population.
"We often have 25 calls from women a day and we have to turn some of them away because we don't have the space," said Deb DeLay, the mission's clinical director.
That's something the mission and its employees don't want to keep doing. So, they plan on building an $8.2 million, four-story addition. The Scott Walker Women and Families Service Building.
"We're building this to take care of the needs that's here right now, to do our part," said Don Shisler, the mission's president and CEO.
It will replace the current women's facility, which houses 33 women in a World War II era building.
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The plans call for 28 new rooms, for 56 women in the mission's program, 12 overnight beds for women, five rooms for men and their children, a more private prayer room, a new pantry -- so residents don't have to cross East Lancaster-- as well as new office and program rooms.
The expansion also calls for five rooms for families with children. While there are rooms for women and their children and even for some men and their children, the mission presently has no space for families with both parents. Families have to split up, presently, to stay at the mission.
"So we want to provide a place for them to stay intact with the children, with the family, because the husband and wife are a great support system for each other," DeLay said.
But before the mission can build it's turning to its greatest support system to help raise the final $1.3 million.
"That's how we survive here is through the generosity of the community," Shisler said
As the mission hopes to make a bigger impact on those most needing its help. The final money needs to be raised by the end of September, when the mission plans to hold an official ground breaking.
If all goes according to plan, the new facility could open by fall 2014. The mission is also looking at adding some residential units to its property, as low-income housing remains difficult to find in the county according to Shisler.
In the short term, the mission says it could also use bottled water to hand out during the summer to those in need. Shisler says they only have a five week supply remaining.
