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TriBeCa Homeless Shelter to Expand to Meet Demand

By Julie Shapiro | December 2, 2010 5:00pm | Updated on December 3, 2010 6:59am

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

TRIBECA — The New York City Rescue Mission is about to launch an ambitious expansion project to double the number of people it serves.

The mission — which provides beds, food and clothing, along with a dose of Christian counseling, to the homeless — hopes to start construction on a three-story addition to its Lafayette Street building next spring.

The $9 million project will add 100 beds to the shelter, along with an enlarged computer center, clinic and chapel. The 12,000-square-foot addition will also allow the mission to open its doors to women for the first time, through a 12-bed pilot program.

"We see the need," Executive Director James VarnHagen said this week. "We’re full every night."

VarnHagen first started working on the expansion more than a decade ago, but the pieces only recently began to fall into place with a generous donation of over $4 million from the estate of Theresa Cwierzyk, a local pathologist.

Meanwhile, the need for the services has been growing, especially since the city closed the John Heuss House homeless drop-in center in the Financial District last year. The NYC Rescue Mission saw a 30 percent spike in demand for food from October 2009 to this October, spokesman Joe Little said.

"A year ago, you’d see two, three, four folks waiting for the food pantry," Little said. "Now the lobby is crowded with needy folks."

VarnHagen is working to raise the rest of the money and get final approval from the city. He hopes to complete the project within the next two years.

The NYC Rescue Mission was founded in 1872 by Jerry and Maria McAuley and has always been headquartered in lower Manhattan. McAuley was an alcoholic and criminal who found God while serving time in Sing Sing and vowed to help other members of the so-called "unworthy poor."

McAuley’s motto — "We want to clean ’em up on the outside while God cleans ’em up on the inside" — has guided the rescue mission ever since.

While Christianity is the mission’s central tenet, anyone can come in for a meal or a shower without listening to a sermon. Those who want to sleep in the shelter have to attend an evening chapel, run by local clergy.

"We try not to bang people over the head with the gospel," Little said. "The folks here get fire and brimstone every day [on the street]. They need hope — vibrant hope."

The mission also runs a nine-month 12-step residential program, which includes counseling and skill building. The planned expansion will allow the mission to double that program from 25 to about 50 men at a time.

Over a lunch of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and collard greens this week, Bert, 51, who is a month into the residential program, said the mission gave him a place to go when he had nothing else.

"I started falling down again," said Bert, who has struggled with addiction. "I decided to spend a year here working on me and to get a closer relationship with God."

Bert, who could not give his last name because of the mission’s policies, said he was glad to hear about the expansion.

"This place is a blessing," he said. "If they have an extension on it, it’s going to be even more than a blessing."