Greenhouses, solar panels, a quiet courtyard, immaculate hallways and shiny steel bunks — the new home of the Pacific Garden Mission is a far cry from the cramped, worn-out building at Balbo and State Streets that was its home for the last 80 years.
On Saturday, more than 1,000 people gathered to celebrate the opening of the 130-year-old mission’s new 155,000-square-foot facility in the South Loop, singing in thunderous a cappella the old hymn “To God Be the Glory” in the auditorium.
Afterward, they toured the three-story brick building, where water is heated by solar panels and the roof is covered with gardens to reduce radiant heat and rain run-off. In the building’s center, a quiet courtyard planted with birch trees sits open to the sky. In the main hall on the ground floor, overhead lights are shaped like street lights and room placards are in the form of green street signs.
There are 989 beds in the new $27 million facility, of which 600 are set aside for male residents. The new building, at 1458 S. Canal St., also houses a free health clinic that provides dental and eye care, a barbershop and a salon, job training and GED classes. Two greenhouses will grow organic vegetables, to be sold and used in the cafeteria, which serves 2,200 meals daily.
Mission president David McCarrell said the organization will begin taking in women and children next week, and male residents shortly after that. In 2005, the Chicago Board of Education bought the old site for $13 million for the expansion of nearby Jones College Prep High School.
It may take a little while for word to spread that the mission has moved from State Street, but the new location also puts the home closer to neighborhoods where homelessness is a growing concern, McCarrell said.
“Our numbers have jumped so drastically in the past few years. We’ve had to take beds off one floor and use mats, things like that,” McCarrell said. “We just came through the summer months, where our numbers usually go down. We average over 500 men a night. When I first came on the board of trustees some 20 some years ago, we’d reach 200 guys. Then 250, then 300. Last winter, between our two facilities, we slept over 1,000. They keep telling me homelessness is going down, but not in our place.”
Many of those celebrating the opening were people who have supported the mission financially over the years. Deb Thomas, 49, and her father, Ken, 85, of Salem, Ohio, made a point to attend the opening as they wrapped up a two-week vacation. She said she sends a check each payday to the mission.
“It’s not much, but what I can give, I send,” she said. “I think they do phenomenal work. We get their papers and we read the testimonies of the fellows that have been changed.”
“Our goal really is to have people who come to us as transients, to have their lives changed through the power of Christ, get into our Bible program for a year, develop skills and to move back into society as productive Christian citizens,” McCarrell said. “That’s our goal for everyone that comes in here.”
“You can rebuild the mind and the body, but you also have to rebuild the soul,” said Mayor Richard M. Daley, who attended the opening. “And that’s what Pacific Garden Mission does.”
———–
mwalberg@tribune.com
