photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Several people gathered for the open house of a new shelter for homeless families owned and operated by nonprofit Family Promise on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

Lawrence’s Family Promise recently completed the conversion of a longtime day care building into a shelter for homeless families, and it held an open house on Tuesday to celebrate the project’s completion.

The nonprofit’s new facility is intended to house up to six homeless families at any given time. The property, located at 200 Mount Hope Court, is equipped with bedrooms, multiple kitchens and a playground for kids.

Publisher of Lawrence Business Magazine Steven Hertzog added that the project means a lot to the community. And Brad Finkeldei, a city commissioner and previous president of Family Promise, said the organization holds a very special place in his heart and he has appreciated what they have done for a long time.

“On behalf of the City Commission, the County Commission and our plan with ‘A Place for Everyone,’ (and) trying to make a difference with all our homeless issues, Family Promise looks forward to that,” Finkeldei said. “Family Promise is central to helping those families, and this is a big part of that.”

The shelter will feature six bedrooms, each equipped with a queen bed and a set of bunk beds, as well as a private bathroom. The maximum capacity will be 24 guests, in addition to staff. Above all, the property will significantly reduce the need to uproot the families currently receiving shelter through Family Promise.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Family Promise team gathered for a ribbon cutting on the new shelter for homeless families on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

As the Journal-World reported, before Family Promise announced that they would be opening a homeless shelter of their own, the nonprofit housed homeless families in various churches since its inception 15 years ago. Homeless families would sleep and eat in one particular church or house of worship for one particular week. The next week, those families would pack up their belongings and move to the next church on Family Promise’s schedule.

Interim Executive Director of Family Promise Brenda Wahl said that while this system worked for what they needed at the time, it was challenging for families who had to move back and forth and share bathrooms.

“This shelter will provide a safe and stable place for families for the time they need shelter,” Wahl said. “Shelter is not the answer to homelessness; we know that; it’s housing. But this is the place where they can take a breath, where they can take care of their families and they can do the work that they need to do to get into housing again.”

She said that Family Promise hopes to open the shelter to the first family by the end of November, before the first snow of the year.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Each of the six bedrooms has a bed with a set of bunk beds at the new Family Promise shelter.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

A bedroom at the shelter for homeless families owned by Family Promise.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

A space inside the Family Promise shelter at 200 Mount Hope Court.