- City of Lansing opened its warming center back in November.
- The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries was picked to run the warming center... Now that agreement is set to expire on April 30th.
- Watch video about to see what's next for the city's warming center.
Change is coming to Lansing's warming center.
Late last year, Lansing chose the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries to run the center. That agreement will expire at the end of this month.
“We were able to make a positive contribution to the city,” said DRM CEO Chad Audi.
Audi is the CEO of the Detroit rescue mission ministries. He said since running the warming center , which opened in November, they've been able to help out a lot of people in the community.
“This last month, we were able to help out about 286 people,” Audi said.
This was all paid for by the city. Audi tells us they've only spent about 110 thousand dollars for the operational side of the warming center.
**FULL INTERVIEW WITH DETROIT RESCUE BELOW**
Lansing secured $800,000 from the state for a new warming center. Well, now that the Detroit Rescue's contract is expiring, city officials say that state funding will be put to use.
“LETTS center will close at the end of this month, and we will start a new one that will be open 24/7,” Director of Lansing’s Human Relations Kim Coleman. “We anticipate having beds and cots for people to sleep in. Plus, crisis management.”
**VIDEO BELOW SHOWS LANSING'S HRCS EXPLAINING NEW SHELTER**
The 24 hour shelter is expected to be serve at between 75 to 100 people at a time and city officials said they'll start taking RFP requests from organizations who wish to run the shelter in May.
This is a change that community activists like Luna Brown are on board with.
“A permanent shelter would be good,” Brown said. “As long as they're addressing issues in the city and getting people off the street. Also ideally, I would want a non religious organization to run it.”
PREVIOUS WARMING CENTER COVERAGE:
Controversy surrounding Lansing’s new warming center continues ‘It’s been a mess from the beginning’
