Steve Thurston (2021)
Kim Cook poses for a picture as contractors work on the Open Door Mission dining room. (She removed and replaced her face mask quickly for the photo.)
The Open Door Mission of Glens Falls has received a $1.5 million grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York and Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Company.
The money will support renovation already underway on their site at 226 Warren St. in Glens Falls, the mission wrote in a statement Tuesday, Jan. 19.
"We provide a place where those who are seeking a new life can find hope in a caring community of qualified staff and volunteers,” said the mission's President Kim Cook in the statement.
The renovation will run about $5 million over five years, Cook said in a recent interview. About $700,000 has been spent thus far, she said, though she did not have exact figures at the interview.
The mission bought the building in December 2016, began renovating in September 2017 and moved most operations to the building in May 2018. The former location at 47 Lawrence St. in Glens Falls still serves free, take-out meals.
Staff, residents and volunteers currently use only one-third of the 40,000 square foot building, Cook said in the interview.
Once completed, the four story building will house a 52 bed men’s shelter and a smaller one for women. Eight men and six women live there now.
The second floor will house classrooms and healthcare services. The main floor will have intake space, a security office, a chapel and a 100-seat dining room which should open for business in February. Once it opens, the Lawrence Street location will close.
Their programs aim to move people out of poverty, but that is labor-intensive work.
“We walk a path with people. And we walk alongside them, which takes a lot more staff time,” Cook said.
In the last seven years, the mission staff has grown from seven to 28 paid staff, doubling in the last year alone, with a total operating budget of about $2.3 million, Cook said. In the past year, 176 volunteers worked 16,493 hours.
The building has offices for county staff to use as programmatic support, a small laundry facility, an internet cafe and other amenities aimed to keep people at the location, working in the program.
“The Open Door Mission has been a beacon of light, a place of comfort and a source of hope for so many people in our community through the years,” said Senator Dan Stec in the press release. “I can’t think of an organization more deserving of this grant award, nor a time more critical for expanding services and offering help to more individuals given the many challenges we are seeing as a result of COVID.”