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Rescue Mission to announce project for new shelter location
By Bruce Walton
YOUNGSTOWN
Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley will make an announcement today about its plan to move to a new location.
Jim Echement, executive director, said they are using its current building, at 962 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., “way beyond what it was designed for.”
The building, on the city’s North Side, once housed the West Federal Street YMCA branch, which opened in 1931 for blacks who were not allowed to use the downtown YMCA’s facilities.
The building’s deteriorating infrastructure is the biggest obstacle to continuing the mission’s operation, Echement said. The mission needs more space for its growing annual population, he added.
“Its unwise to sink a bunch of money into this building,” Echement said.
Echement said the mission already has the location for its new facility.
The city gave a 17.5-acre plot it has been maintaining since 2010 on property in the former South Side Park off Bellview Avenue to the mission for the building. The construction cost is an estimated $9.5 million.
The mission relies heavily on philanthropy and donations from individuals, churches and foundation. The faith-based relief organization does not accept any public funding.
Mission officials, however, were recently informed about another way to raise project funds.
When Betsy Figgie, the founder of Your CFO Resource, learned about the project the Rescue Mission was planning, she told mission officials their project would be the perfect poster child for New Market Tax Credits.
The credits are designed to increase the flow of capital to businesses and low-income communities through giving a modest tax incentive from the federal government to private investors that positively impact their community.
The credits, to be announced today, will give a net benefit of 20 percent toward the project’s overall cost, which Figgie said will total about $2 million.
“We have the plan. We have the property. We’re raising the money, and we’re ready to go,” Echement said.
He said he needs help from generous donors to reach the fundraising goal by Dec. 31 so construction planning can begin next year. Echement said about two-thirds of the goal has been reached, but the mission needs about another $3 million.
Echement added donations for the shelter’s annual maintenance are separate from the money needed for the new shelter.