Staff at Lifting Up Westchester recently was joined by Westchester County and White Plains officials in celebrating the completion of a $4.4 million renovation of Open Arms Men”™s Shelter in White Plains.
The facility at 86 E. Post Road is the city”™s only transitional and emergency drop-in shelter for single, homeless men and its only shelter that provides outreach services to the chronically homeless, according to officials at the 36-year-old nonprofit social services agency.
- The expanded and renovated Open Arms Men’s Shelter at 86 E. Post Road in White Plains.
Lifting Up Westchester purchased the building for $2 million prior to the renovation project, which added a third floor to the shelter that increased its space from 12,600 square feet to 16,100 square feet. A fully equipped industrial kitchen and an elevator also were among the improvements to the redesigned shelter, which can accommodate 52 people in 38 transitional and 14 emergency housing units.
The purchase of the property ”” which has housed the men”™s shelter for a quarter century ”” and renovations were largely financed by an approximately $5.77 million grant from the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Homeless Housing and Assistance Program. The Leviticus Fund, a social lender, provided a $133,000 loan for the project. Lifting Up Westchester also received an approximately $508,000 loan from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York”™s Affordable Housing Program.
With renovations completed, Lifting Up Westchester officials said the agency will focus on quickly moving shelter residents into homes of their own.
“The rationale is finding housing is the greatest emotional burden faced by homeless individuals,” Charlie Bevier, director of the agency”™s shelter and homeless outreach services, said. “Once they are secure in a place of their own, they are better able to deal with the issues of addiction, unemployment or mental illness that contributed to them being homeless in the first place.”
Founded in 1979, Lifting Up Westchester operates eight community-based programs providing food and shelter to county residents. Lifting Up Westchester officials said it serves 4,000 men, women and children each year, providing 140,000 meals and 28,000 nights of shelter to the homeless.
