Saturday, June 27, 2009
Focus on faith: Mission expands to aid those in need
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"Wow, this place is big," I said to Roanoke Rescue Mission development director Lee Clark last week as he led me on a tour of the downtown facility.
My reaction is common, it turns out. Most Roanokers know the shelter exists, Clark said, but many are surprised by the size and scope of its services.
The mission operates two shelters and a thrift store on Fourth Street Southeast, is converting buildings on Bullitt Avenue to apartments for graduates of its addiction treatment program and next month will open a second thrift store on Williamson Road that includes a cafe and art gallery.
Inside the shelters, visitors find two learning centers offering classes and computer access, a dining hall that serves three meals a day to anyone who is hungry and a free clinic offering medical, psychiatric and dental care.
Since its founding in 1948, the rescue mission's budget has grown to $3.8 million. Today, the various facilities -- including a children's summer camp in the Catawba Valley -- are staffed by 48 full-time and 28 part-time employees, Clark said.
The shelters are mostly quiet during the day, except for members of the residential treatment program, who clean the facility as part of their contribution. On the Friday I visited, all the beds in the men's shelter were made by 11 a.m -- handmade quilts tucked neatly around each mattress.
Blue sleeping mats stacked in the corner of both shelters are pressed into service more and more often these days, Clark said, as clients regularly outnumber available beds.
The mission's family shelter used to serve mostly single parents, predominantly women with children, Clark said. But lately, staff are seeing more and more two-parent families and single fathers with children -- many of them casualties of a lingering economic recession.
It's a trend heard among social service workers across the Roanoke and New River valleys. While a family might become homeless for any number of reasons, the common narrative seems to be homelessness brought on by drastic cuts in work hours, layoffs or medical emergencies that lead to job loss, Clark said.
In 2008, the mission staff saw a 20 percent increase in demand for both free meals and shelter services. Some nights, the facility has taken in 360 to 370 people, which Clark characterized as "all-time high numbers."
The free clinic was visited 11,268 times in 2008, a 61 percent increase over 2007, he said.
As big as the rescue mission's operation is, the need it seeks to fill is even bigger. In the Roanoke Valley alone, a survey conducted over one day in January by the Roanoke Council of Community Services found 669 homeless people living in 15 area shelters and on the streets. Seventy-two of them were children.
That's "a higher number than ... in the last 22 years and a stark contrast to the decrease in counts that was reported in 2008 from 2007," according to the survey.
Yet the actual number of homeless and those at risk of homelessness may be higher.
The rescue mission is estimated to provide services to between 2,500 and 3,000 people each year, Clark wrote in an e-mail.
Clark offers tours of the Fourth Street mission facility on Mondays at noon. The public is welcome. Call 777-7687 for more information.
On the Net: www.rescuemission.net
