Turlock mission gets $875,000 to finish homeless shelter

The Turlock Gospel Mission has secured the money it needs to finish building a year-round homeless shelter, which is expected to open in mid-November with 65 beds for men, women and children and services to help them.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco awarded the mission $875,000 last month, which means the project has reached its funding goal of $2.5 million. The mission raised the balance of the project’s funding from the community over several years. Construction started in 2015 and is about three-quarters done.

“Our goal is not to provide an overnight shelter and that’s it,” Turlock Gospel Mission board President Chris Kiriakou said. “Our goal is to restore people. When people come into the shelter, they will have a case worker assigned to them. We believe it’s in our guests’ best interest to go through a program to address all of their issues.”

Kiriakou said guests will not be required to participate but will be encouraged to do so.

The 8,480-square-foot shelter is on South Broadway in downtown and next to the mission’s day center. The shelter will have 40 beds for men and 25 for women and children as well as showers, laundry facilities, a commercial kitchen and a host of services. How the beds are allocated will change based on need.

Gospel Mission Executive Director Christian Curby said those services are expected to include case management, adult education and vocational training. The homeless can also bring their dogs, which will be placed in the day center’s kennels. He said the California State University, Stanislaus, nursing program will operate a clinic at the shelter and plans are being developed to offer free residential treatment for chemical dependency.

He said one of the mission’s main goals is restoring relationships between the homeless and the larger community. “The folks we serve often feel marginalized,” Curby said. “And the community can see people experiencing homelessness as not part of the community. Our goal is to bridge that.”

He said the shelter gives the mission the opportunity to consolidate services. For instance, the day center offers three meals a day. Curby said those meals eventually will be provided at the shelter. And the mission works with churches during the winter to provide shelter to women and children. But the shelter will provide that year-round.

This will be Turlock’s second year-round shelter.

The We Care Program has operated a winter shelter for men since 2003, but is moving to year-round after securing state and federal grants. We Care board Treasurer Maris Sturtevant said after operating for 5 1/2 months each year for the previous five years, the shelter operated 9 1/2 months this season, closing June 30 for repairs. She said the 49-bed shelter plans to reopen on a year-round basis Sept. 1.

She said 300 homeless men used the shelter this past season, and the shelter turned away 275 of them when it was at full capacity on 101 nights. Sturtevant said there is a need for both shelters. “I think if we are turning away 275, then yes,” she said. “Two-hundred-and-seventy people were on the streets because we were full.”

But even two year-round facilities with more than 100 beds between them won’t meet the need for shelter. This year’s count of the homeless in Stanislaus County tallied 1,661 people, including 248 in Turlock. These annual counts are a snapshot of homelessness and cannot include all of the homeless.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco awarded the gospel mission the $875,000 as part of $73.6 million it awarded to 89 recipients through its Affordable Housing Program, according to a mission news release. The release said the awards were competitive. Kiriakou said the community’s support for the mission helped it secure the grant.

This story was originally published July 8, 2017 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Turlock mission gets $875,000 to finish homeless shelter."