† Homeless group calls for your aid
Coachella Valley Rescue Mission launches drive for $12M expansion

DENISE GOOLSBY • THE DESERT SUN • JULY 7, 2008

INDIO - The Coachella Valley Rescue Mission is embarking on an ambitious fundraising campaign to double the number of homeless people it can feed and house in the eastern part of the Coachella Valley.

Plans for a new 35,000-square-foot community care facility in Indio were approved last month. Rescue Mission officials plan to have 150 beds, a small medical and dental clinic, a larger cafeteria area and classrooms at the new facility.

As they move ahead with a capital campaign to pay for the $12 million project, Rescue Mission officials say a new facility can't come soon enough.

"We're turning people away every night," said Darla Burkett, the rescue mission's executive director. "An additional 25 people a night sleep on the chapel floor."

The Rescue Mission has been providing shelter for 34 women and children and 50 men daily. It serves more than 9,000 meals each month and provides food boxes filled with groceries to 85 to 125 families each week.

But the shelter can only accommodate a fraction of the thousands of homeless in the valley, Burkett said.

About 4,500 homeless live in Riverside County, with nearly 1,200 in the Coachella Valley, according to county statistics from 2007.

The Rescue Mission is one of only a few emergency facilities for homeless, including Martha's Village & Kitchen, also in Indio.

Last week, Riverside County supervisors voted to spend about $4.9 million on property north of Interstate 10 in Palm Springs, paving the way for a west valley homeless shelter.

Rescue Mission officials plan to break ground on their new facility in about a year at the northeast corner of Van Buren Street and Manila Avenue. The shelter will be built across from the Rescue Mission's current building, constructed in 1933.

Indio Planning Commission members, who unanimously approved plans for the new facility last month, acknowledged the growing need for services.

"I think it's about time," said Planning Commissioner Glenn Miller. "It's definitely something that's needed."

Rescue Mission officials are trying to raise money for construction and two years of operating costs.

So far, they have pulled together $2 million of the $12 million needed. Officials plan to fund the rest with private donations and grants.

Burkett said the planning commission's approval for the project will help fundraising efforts and clear the way for the Rescue Mission to file an application for federal funding.

David Bentley's story
Rescue Mission resident and kitchen supervisor David Bentley said the new facility will be a blessing. "It means we'll be able to take care of more people, touching more people in the community so they can turn their lives around, too," he said.

Bentley, 47, came to the shelter in July 2007, three weeks after he had been released from prison. He had served time for using drugs.

"I was messing up," he said. "I wanted to change my life and start doing things right."

Bentley has been participating in the Rescue Mission's year-long, faith-based counseling and education program. It's designed to prepare residents for returning to the workforce and mainstream society.

Bentley will graduate in August. He's in the process of looking for a place to live, but will continue working as a staff member at the Rescue Mission.

Beyond the need to raise money for a new facility, Bentley said the Rescue Mission has everyday needs to worry about. "We're running low on canned goods, dry goods, rice, beans, cereal, oatmeal, dry milk and peanut butter and jellly," he said.

The economic downturn is putting an extra burden on the mission, Burkett said. Even people with jobs are coming in on a regular basis asking for everything from food to baby items to gas money. And nobody is turned away.

An issue for entire valley
Last year, the Coachella Valley Association of Governments approved its homeless committee's strategic plan to end homelessness in the valley.

The three-year strategy includes establishing service centers in the western and eastern portions of the valley that would provide food, showers, emergency shelter, mental health, health services, and employment services.

The plan is to have all desert cities pay for the centers.

"We want to see all cities chip in for the east and west valley multi-service centers," said Aurora Wilson, director of community resources for the Coachella Valley Association of Governments.

The homeless aren't fixed in one location, Wilson said. They travel throughout the desert community.

"The homeless are mobile, they go from one end of the valley to the other," Wilson said.

The east valley has historically borne the burden of caring for the valley's homeless population.

The Rescue Mission's new facility - with an additional 70-plus beds - will help close some of the gap in the valley's emergency housing needs, Wilson said.

"(The Rescue Mission) continues to meet the needs for homeless shelter services that are badly needed all over the valley," Wilson said.

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