Kokomo Rescue Mission breaks ground on new 65-bed expansion and community center

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Kokomo Rescue Mission director Kevin Smith didn’t get much sleep on the evening of Sept. 17. By his own admission, he was as excited as an eight-year-old on Christmas Eve. That was because he was about to unveil the most ambitious plan the mission had seen in decades.

On Wed., Sept. 18, Smith got the chance to share what has him so excited. The mission plans to expand, serving more homeless individuals in the community at a time when the need is as great as ever.

“We thought morning would never come, but it did,” said Smith. “We're here today to announce that it's time for us to do something. We're breaking ground today on a new building project.”

It has been nearly 30 years since the mission last underwent an expansion on the site it has occupied for the past six decades. Smith explained that the former Bolinger Law Office building next to the mission will be demolished, and in its place will be a two-story, 20,000 square-foot facility, complete with 65 new shelter beds, a new dining hall, and various meeting rooms.

“Our 65-bed men's shelter has run full for two years,” said Smith. “We have hated telling dozens of homeless men who were on our waiting list the same thing that Jesus’ parents heard the night he was born. ‘Sorry, we don't have any room today.’ That begins to change.”

The new dining room will feature round tables, manned by volunteers, Smith explained. There also will be a separate dining area for families. The first floor also will host a community engagement center that is open to everyone.

“It will allow us to move beyond merely feeding people to connecting with them, to hosting them, to informing them, to getting to know them, and hopefully helping them,” said Smith. “While we continue to help them with their needs, we are going to also try and help them take steps out of their poverty.”

The community engagement center is a feature Smith is particularly excited to have. It will be the place where people can take an active role in helping the homeless rise out of poverty.

“To any community partner that works to try to help those who need it the most, I say to you, join us,” said Smith. “Our new engagement center will be a place of partnership. It's going to contain offices, exam rooms, meeting rooms, and classrooms that we're building not just for us, but for you.

“In that center, we will engage individuals together. We're going to help them with challenges in areas such as legal, medical, dental, mental, health insurance, Social Security, SNAP enrollment, housing, job training, and beyond. If you're trying to help people in this community, we would love to partner with you, and we're building space so that could happen.”

Mayor Tyler Moore applauded the mission and its board for taking the steps necessary to expand the building and its services.

“The Rescue Mission, for all those years, has been a light in the darkness for those in Kokomo, Howard County, and the surrounding area,” said Moore. “They've been a hope for the hopeless. They've been peace for the restless. In a few months, that light's going to shine brighter. That hope is going to be stronger, and that peace is going to be even broader.

“This is going to continue to feed and support and serve our community in ways that are going to be so incredible and so needed. And so may God continue to bless you and your staff in their efforts, continue to bless this corner and continue to strengthen Kokomo through it.”

During the ground-breaking ceremony at the mission, a pair of former residents spoke to the crowd in attendance, explaining how the mission changed their lives. Jim Dalton moved in during COVID in 2020. A self-described town drunk, he found the rescue mission as a last resort.

“Honestly, this was the only place to come for my umpteenth second chance,” said Dalton. “This place has the resources to help if you want help, and by golly, I did. It was a struggle, and it still is, but I built myself up.

“I didn't have any self-esteem. I didn't have any self-worth. I just didn't care anymore. This place helped me get back with the church. I started to become an active member, and I still am. I can't thank this place enough and the staff. I'll never be able to quit giving back what they've given me.”

Ron Frakes Sr. was fresh out of prison on a drug-dealing conviction and was convinced there wasn’t a place for him in normal society. He agreed to stay at the rescue mission after his release even though he had no hope, no faith.

“I was destroyed inside, both mentally and physically,” said Frakes. “I figured my past was going to define my future. That wasn't the case. My past was left outside these doors. They gave me the opportunity to become what I stand here before you today, and that's a changed person.

“The opportunity for you to change and become the person that Christ intends you to be is here. All you have to do is accept it. They will work with you; the chaplains, the staff, they're all great. They don't treat you as if you're a criminal or an addict or whatever. They look at you as a human. They put me in a position of trust where I actually got to share and watch people's lives be changed.”

Frakes said he has seen hundreds of people come through the mission’s doors but leave “100 times better” than when they arrived.

Of course, any building project comes with a price tag, and rescue mission’s expansion is no different. It will cost $8 million to construct. But the mission has a significant head start on the funding.

Smith explained that a local family donated $411,000 in honor of their departed mother, who was a faithful donor for years. And Grace United Methodist Church, a long-time partner and next-door neighbor to the mission, donated $2 million to the project.

“Individuals, businesses, local government, and churches have begun to step forward, and as of today, by the grace of God, he's provided and identified donations and commitments towards our project that total over $5 million,” said Smith.

“This project is not merely a good idea, it's a God idea. We haven't sat down in our clever wisdom and crafted this vision we're pursuing. It’s the vision God has given us. This is His project, and it's motivated by His heart for the least and the last and the lost. He is the author of the plans. He has been our guide. He is our source, and we're going to build this in obedience to God, by His strength, through His provision, for His glory.”

For more information about the Kokomo Rescue Mission or to donate, visit www.kokomorescuemission.org.