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WINCHESTER — The Winchester Rescue Mission has 42 beds for homeless men and 10 beds for displaced women, and those 52 beds are currently the only refuge in the entire city for people who are homeless.
“We’re it, bro,” the mission’s executive director, Brandan Thomas, said on Monday. “We’re the only show in town that takes folks seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
Due to the lack of available beds, eight to 10 people are turned away from the mission’s North Cameron Street shelter every day because there’s simply no room for them, Thomas said. That means those seeking assistance — including a growing number of elderly people — have no choice but to stay on the streets, perhaps sleeping in one of the numerous homeless encampments that have sprung up in multiple wooded areas throughout Winchester.
“In seven years, I haven’t seen what I’m seeing now,” said Thomas, who has been running the mission since February 2016.
Fortunately, relief is in sight. On July 3, Winchester Rescue Mission plans to start renovating a former restaurant at 2655 Valley Ave. to significantly increase the number of beds it offers for people experiencing homelessness in Winchester. The nonprofit’s second shelter will also offer an array of services to help displaced individuals address mental health and addiction issues, learn how to properly care for themselves, find jobs and affordable housing, and regain their independence.
Problem is, the building isn’t expected to be finished until at least April 1. In the meantime, the Winchester Rescue Mission’s existing shelter at 435 N. Cameron St. will remain the city’s only overnight homeless shelter until the Salvation Army of Winchester reopens its facility on Fort Collier Road (it has been closed for several months), the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter (WATTS) resumes operations in November or Family Promise Northern Shenandoah Valley follows through with its plans to open its own homeless shelter in the city.
The 10 people on staff at the mission, as well as its dozens of volunteers, face the painful daily task of telling homeless individuals they can’t do anything for them, at least for now. Thomas said that has been taking a huge psychological toll on the workers who want nothing more than to uplift others in need.
“Last Monday, staff was just in tears because of the number of people we’ve had to turn away in such a short period of time,” Thomas said. “I canceled our staff meeting and just took them bowling as a way of saying, ‘Let’s just be together for a moment, let’s just take a breath.'”
For the sake of his staff and the homeless community he serves, Thomas said, the mission’s Valley Avenue shelter can’t open fast enough.
Before work begins, though, Thomas said there will be two ceremonies to bless the new shelter and the services it will provide to the community.
The first will be a church service from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday at 2655 Valley Ave.
“We have a couple of local pastors — Pastor Sean Devolite from First United Methodist Church and Pastor Mike Moulden from First Christian Church — who will be there to share some verses and prayers for the facility,” Thomas said. “The idea is to get the church community to engage with the project because, obviously, we’re a faith-based organization and we believe whole-heartedly in life transformation.”
The church service and tours of the building are open to the public, but for local entrepreneurs and those who want to attend a non-secular ceremony to celebrate the start of work on the new shelter, a second event will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. June 29.
“I believe it’s important for the business community to get behind our project, to be with us in lockstep, because this is a benefit not only for the community but for the business community as well,” Thomas said. “The men and women who walk through our doors and participate in life transformation become an incredible workforce for our business community.”
Currently, Thomas said, the Winchester Rescue Mission has about a 30% success rate getting clients back into the workforce, “which I wish was a whole lot better but, at the same time, when you understand the complexities of homelessness, 30% is actually a really great number.”
Those complexities, Thomas said, include addiction, alcoholism, lack of education, dementia, debt, joblessness, an inability to live independently and so on, but those are often just symptoms masking a bigger problem. At the core of almost every homeless person’s plight, he said, are untreated or undiagnosed mental health issues.
Even with those challenges, the mission’s client success rate could be higher if it weren’t for the current cost of living in Winchester. Thomas said there are several people at the shelter who are ready to move into transitional housing, but average rents in the city are so high, they can’t afford a place of their own.
But that’s a problem to be addressed another day. For now, the Winchester Rescue Mission’s focus is squarely on kicking off construction of the new Valley Avenue shelter.
Thomas said the project is budgeted at $3 million, and the mission has so far raised about $1.5 million. The nonprofit is considering selling two houses it owns that were intended to serve as secondary shelters but proved inadequate for that purpose, but more money will still be needed.
If you can’t make a monetary donation to the mission, Thomas said there’s something else you can give that doesn’t cost a dime.
“Prayer,” he said, “for those who are suffering the devastating effects of homelessness and for those who are working in the trenches of serving those who are devastated by the effects of homelessness.”
To learn more about Winchester Rescue Mission, visit winrescue.org.
