Erie Community Foundation Helps Keep Homeless Men Safe and Healthy

July 6, 2010 | Newsroom

A grant awarded to the Erie City Mission will help keep homeless men in shelter at the Mission safe from a problem all too common in shelter environments. The Erie Community Foundation is granting $15,000 to the Mission to purchase new institutional shelter beds and bedding. Institutional mattresses made especially for shelter settings provide not only the dignity and comfort the Mission strives to supply to those in need, they also provide the safeguards to make them virtually impenetrable to bed bugs and other parasites.

The Mission is grateful to the Erie Community Foundation for once again recognizing a
valid community need and doing something about it by providing the funds to truly make a
difference.

On any given night, up to 78 homeless men are sheltered at the Mission. 34 men are housed in the Samaritan Care emergency shelter. Up to 44 men are housed in the New Life Program, a long term transitional housing and rehabilitation program that lasts from six months to two years. Most nights additional men who do not fit in the shelter sleep on cots in the public dining room.

The Mission is in the process of raising funds to replace the more than 100 year old shelter
building on the corner of 11th & French Streets with a new shelter that will increase the
capacity from 78 beds to 106 beds. The new shelter will be built behind the existing shelter
on land that currently houses the Mission’s parking lot. Construction is set to begin in late
fall.