The Downtown Mission is expanding to a new property on Ouellette Ave. that will house the mission's Wellness Centre.
The property at 875 Ouellette Ave. will have a dormitory with 60 beds with separated quarters for men and women, a larger food and clothing bank and will offer rehabilitation services. The mission's "Do Good" restaurants and training services will also be run from the new facility.
"We purchased the building in order to fulfill our commitment to those that we serve, mostly at night. We've been talking for the last year or so about our guests who have to spend the night on the floor and it's really something we were committed to remedying," says Executive Director of the Downtown Mission Ron Dunn.
The building cost $950,000 and was purchased through donations from the community. "The money came from the community. We've been very blessed in the last number of years and been stocking away a little bit of money here and there and we've been able to purchase the building with those funds. And really the goal has always been to be able to better serve our community," says Dunn. The mission's meal programs and administrative services will continue to operate on Victoria Ave. The mission took ownership of the building last week and will begin renovations shortly. Dunn says they will still need help from the community to make this dream a reality. "We are looking for the community to get involved. There's going to be opportunities to maybe pick up a paint brush and get some sweat equity into our new project. All of that is getting worked out right now and we're going to move forward in the next month or so," say Dunn. They hope to be up and running before the end of summer.
