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ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Open Door Mission’s men’s shelter on Main Street in Rochester is facing a crisis as they are currently housing double their capacity, putting a massive strain on their resources.
“So we’ve been sleeping around 100 people, and our bed count is technically 52,” said Anna Valeria, CEO of Open Door Mission.
Every bed in the shelter is filled every night and the common area downstairs is doubling as an overflow shelter, with mattresses stored in closets.
“We are well over capacity. And we have been, sleeping well over capacity for this is going on, you know, over two years now,” Valeria said.
Tom Kowalski, News10NBC: “What kind of a strain is that putting on your guys resources at Open Door?”
Anna Valeria: “We have too many people in a building that is not equipped for that many people. We staff for the number of people that we’re supposed to have. So our staff are feeling overwhelmed. Our buildings are feeling overwhelmed. You know, we have to have regular HVAC maintenance. And just the maintenance that comes with this for buildings that are already old, trying to maintain twice the capacity. It’s really putting a strain on everything across the board.”
Valeria and her team are reaching out to the city, county and state government to get help with things beyond feeding and giving people a place to sleep – they say they need help for those with healthcare, addiction treatment, mental illnesses and other issues.
“So we’re not just saying we need financial resources. We’re saying we need the the entities that are designed to support these individuals to step up and help out. The health care systems, law enforcement…we just need support from all of these government entities because we’ve got the support from our donors. But these are high level needs that we have been crying out to say, ‘we can’t do this.’ And people are falling through the cracks and they’re going to suffer even more if these if these other agencies don’t step in,” said Valeria.
Valeria said the mission has already had meetings with several of those agencies, but they need help sooner rather than later.
If you’re interested in donating, here is a link to where you can do so. You can give money, clothing food, and even vehicles to help the Mission.
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