A matter of faith

They know that if they build it, they will come.

That’s the easy part.

It’s the financing that needs prayers and faith.

After 22 years of sheltering, feeding and clothing the community’s less fortunate, The Lighthouse Mission finds itself struggling to meet the unique needs that accompany sheltering entire families.

That in mind, they have set out to build “Casa De Esperanza” or “House of Hope,” a homeless shelter offering living quarters for up to two families.

But just as in the early days when they decided to help those with needs, the mission is a goal fueled by faith. There is no money in the bank to fund it.

“I think we’re just going to pray and believe in a miracle,” co-administrator Geri Gomez said.

“We’re just going to believe that some synergy’s going to hit and (people are) just going to pitch in and help like they did with (the mission).”

The new shelter, which will be built in the vicinity of the existing Lighthouse Mission at 407 L. Casillas Road, is expected to cost about $324,000, she said.

When families come to the mission in need of shelter, the mission is forced to separate the family — usually putting the father by himself in the men’s dorm. It’s because they have only a women’s dorm and a men’s dorm and it is inappropriate to place a man in the women’s dorm to stay with his family, she said.

And women with children have to be housed with other clients, sometimes exposing the children to mental illness and drug addiction, Richard Gomez said in a letter about the project.

It’s not so much a matter of a growing need, as it is a unique one, Geri Gomez said.

The planned facility would offer two family units and segregated dorms to house 12 women and 12 men.

With the need for money to start the project, the mission is embarking on a fundraising drive, she said, with no idea when its dream will come to fruition.

Geri and her husband, Richard Gomez, have run the mission since they started it in 1988.

Over the years, the mission has grown and changed and become better able to meet the needs of the underprivileged, Geri Gomez.

She said even before the facilities were there, the need and the help existed.

“When my kids were little and we didn’t have this shelter we used to take people into our homes,” she said.

And when the mission was nothing more than a little house on 10th Street, where prayer meetings were held and some donation items were available to the needy, “People used to sleep under our little clothing rack.”

“We didn’t start out to be a mission, we started out just wanting to fulfill the scripture. It just grew and the need has never left.”

And it is that mission and need that makes them believe they will soon be able to build their shelter, she said.