WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Local church expanding, updating homeless shelter

Local church expanding, updating homeless shelter

(Columbia) October 5, 2006 - A Columbia church is expanding its own shelter for homeless families. Construction starts Friday, but the facility could double in size by Sunday.

Broken panels and ripped insulation litter the current homeless shelter in desperate need of a makeover.

"Hopefully we can get a group that's committed and knock this out in a week," said Michael Marshall, of the church. Actually, the shelter will probably completed in less than a week.

Midtown Fellowship, a Columbia church group, says it's getting rid of its old pots, painting walls, adding some furniture and building new housing for the homeless. The group says this extreme makeover starts Friday, and will be complete by Sunday.

"It's not left-overs, it's not scraps put together, which is what a lot of shelters get. It's gonna be good stuff because they deserve it," said Marshall.

'They' means more than 15 families the new facility will accommodate, which is twice as many as it could before.

Sharon Gardener knows what it's like to be homeless with children.

"There was a lot of fear," she tells WIS News. "Not knowing what was going to happen."

That's until Gardener found the Midtown Fellowship shelter.

Sharon sings its praise: "Being able to go down there, able to work. Doing "normal" things people do without fear of where I'm going to lay my head at night. So I give a big thumbs up to the shelter."

But based on the odds, Gardener's chances of recieving help were slim. Midtown Fellowship says space issues force it to turn away nearly 90% of families in need. However, their plan now doubles the shelter's size in just three days.

"We're going to get the party started for a celebration Friday night," says Marshall. "Hopefully by sunday it'll be something you don't recognize right now."

An old playground has already been ripped out of the ground, but by Sunday there will be a new one, surrounded by a safety fence and benches.

"We are not bums or derelicts, just someone that has been in a crisis and we're so grateful that the shelter was here," says Gardener.

"We really hope we can do something to unite the community, so it's not the have's and have-not's," Marshall said.

The group is getting an enormous response so far. All of their equipment, and more on it's way, was donated by local retailers. More than 250 area people have also signed up to help with building.

Reported by Dan Tordjman

Updated 9:14pm by Logan Smith