Press Release
For Immediate Release: January 6, 2015
MEDIA CONTACT
Aubrey Calhoun
Senior Director
716.854.8181 x401
[email protected]
Sub-zero Temperatures Mean Crammed
Facility at Buffalo City Mission
With expansion plans in the works, staff prepares for influx of people with
dozens of extra cots, meals
BUFFALO, NY – Freezing cold temperatures present a crucial challenge for the Buffalo
City Mission, as an additional hundred or more homeless men will count on the shelter for relief
from the blistering Code Blue conditions. As 81% of the homeless population comes from the
City of Buffalo1, preparation for these circumstances reaches far beyond setting up additional
cots; meals, clothing, staff and the security to accommodate the influx of people must be in place
for the Mission’s programs to run effectively.
These harsh winter conditions cram the small 153-bed facility, not including emergency
cots. According to Stuart Harper, these cots provide a “band aid” approach to the needs of the
homeless who seek services from the Mission. Long-term solution, the Mission plans to expand.
“For 97 years, the Mission has consistently met the immediate crisis needs of homeless
men,” said Stuart Harper, executive director of the Buffalo City Mission. “Yet with
homelessness and Code Blue nights on the rise, we’ve asked ourselves, ‘What happens when we
run out of room? Where will they go?’ My heart breaks knowing that if we don’t expand our
facility now, we will soon run out of beds and cots for them.”
The Buffalo City Mission has developed a plan which addresses the capacity problem
with a long-term solution: A $31.5 million expansion at the Mission’s 100 Tupper St. location to
add 68 permanent, supportive, affordable housing units and double the size of its emergency
capacity to 184 beds.
The expansion will allow the Mission to treat the core issues of homelessness, rather than
just the symptoms. It will allow for programs that break the cycle of dependency like those that
have been running effectively for over eight years at the Mission’s Cornerstone Manor facility.
Today, Cornerstone Manor provides 24-hour services that include, but are not limited to:
Housing
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Emergency shelter
Long-term housing
Counseling and Rehabilitation
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Spiritual and support
Living with addictions
Education and Job Training
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Literacy and financial literacy
Living healthy
Parenting skills
GED and pre-collegiate studies
Skills training through ECC
NYS licensed day care
On-site Supportive Services
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NYS licensed day care
Health and fitness center
While Cornerstone Manor is exclusively for women and their children, homeless men
look to the Buffalo City Mission’s men’s community center on Tupper for support. But when the
Mission is close to full, as it’s been recently, the programs that work so effectively at
Cornerstone can’t be executed because of the overcrowding. It forces the staff to focus on the
basics.
More than 40,000 individual donors support the Mission annually; however, most of the
money for the project is expected to come from New York State housing funds, along with
trigger funds and instrumental support from the City of Buffalo and Erie County. The Mission
has already raised sufficient money privately to operate the larger facility for at least three years
after it opens, but local and state support is needed first in order to make the expansion a reality.
The additional room allows for innovative, long-term programming that has been proven
to stem homelessness permanently and is based on the Mission’s highly successful Cornerstone
Manor, a model that has already helped hundreds of homeless women become independent,
contributing members of society.
The facts cannot be ignored any longer. To meet the growing demand of homelessness in
Buffalo, the Mission needs to expand now. The expanded site will allow the City Mission to
implement innovative, long-term programming for men that has been proven to decrease
homelessness in the City of Buffalo.
1.
percentage based on the annual report on the state of homelessness in Erie County conducted by the WNY
Homeless Alliance
More about the Buffalo City Mission:
The Buffalo City Mission, founded in 1917, is a not-for-profit organization that provides preventative,
emergency and long-term recovery services to thousands of people who are homeless or impoverished.
The Mission includes: Women and Children’s Shelter (Cornerstone Manor); the Men’s Community
Center; the Mission Vehicle Donation Program; and the Dick Road thrift store location to better serve
our community. For more information or to partake in a tour of our facilities, please
visit www.buffalocitymission.org or call 854-8181, ext 431.
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