A new facility to help homeless men get back on their feet is moving closer to reality at Tupper and Oak streets in downtown Buffalo.
Cheers went up as steel workers put the last beam in place for the Buffalo City Mission's new Community Center on Tuesday. Executive Director Stuart Harper says the $15 million project will not only provide more space for housing homeless men, it will also be bright and cheery.
"We've been here since '84 and it's served us well. But its designers designed prisons. It's dreary. It's dark. It served us very well but this will give us a tremendous upgrade," Harper said.
There will also be room for medical care, social service agencies and job training. Harper says the Mission wants to be able to reach out to people in poverty to prevent homelessness.
"We've really been working on the other end, all these years, about people that have already become homeless. We really want to work on the prevention side of it. And with both at play, we think we can really take a bite out of this homeless thing in Buffalo."
The City Mission is about $2 million shy of its goal for the project but Harper says construction should be complete in about a year.
