Workers on a mission. Pasco shelter on the rise

Construction crews are making progress on the new men’s facility for the Tri-City Union Gospel mission in Pasco.

The $10.4 million project, a product of a almost six years of fund-raising, is expected to open next October.

It will more than quadruple the size of its current location several blocks away.

The 40,000-square-foot facility will have more than 150 beds, a chapel, classrooms, computer labs and more room for case management and counseling services.

The dining room will seat about 150.

The current mission serves men, women and children, providing food, shelter and social service help.

The mission sees far more men than women coming in for aid, so replacing the aging men’s facility is the more urgent priority.

When the new men’s center opens near South Third Avenue and West Columbia Street, the women and children's services will expand into the existing men’s building.

A new women’s facility is envisioned in Kennewick in the future.

The mission formed in the mid-1950s. The men’s shelter on Second Avenue used to be a Masonic Temple; officials bought it for $25,000 in 1958 to begin housing and helping the area’s homeless.

The current building is showing its age. It’s neat and clean inside, but there’s cracked paint, wear and tear on the walls, the floors.

Every nook and cranny is filled with stuff. When the men come in for dinner, chapel and to sleep, every bit of space is filled with people.

“At night if you were walking in here, you'd be bumping into people,” said Andrew Porter, the mission’s executive director. “It’s pretty cramped.”

The men’s facility has 55 beds, plus room for another 50 men on the floor.

Sometimes even that isn’t enough and men have to be turned away.

It also will mean strengthened rescue, recovery and restoration programs, Porter told the Herald.

He became executive director a few years ago, taking the reins from his father, Don, who had led the mission since 1998.

This story was originally published December 10, 2017 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Workers on a mission. Pasco shelter on the rise."