Continuing its expansion of programs to support homeless and low-income people, the Good News Rescue Mission announced Thursday that it will build a $17.8 million residential treatment center next door to its main shelter in south Redding.
The new adult rehabilitation center will offer “intensive” 30 to 90-day residential treatment programs for men and women, said Justin Wandro, director of community partnerships at the religious-based Good News Rescue Mission, Redding’s sole emergency shelter for homeless people.
“There will be a curriculum or program that they’ll go through. It’ll be a pretty intensive program where they’re going to do classes, they’re going to have case management counselors that they meet with multiple times per week,” plus therapy and other medical care, Wandro said.
The organization’s three-story rehabilitation structure will contain a total of 75 beds — half for men, half for women — and offer counseling and other services to help people trying to overcome their dependence on drugs and alcohol.
There will be a cafeteria, lounge and classrooms at the adult rehabilitation center, which is being built with funds awarded by the state. The 28,000-square-foot building is expected to be completed in 2027.
People entering the residential adult rehabilitation center’s program will have already gone through the detox phase of treatment.
The Rescue Mission’s residential adult rehabilitation center will be located just across the driveway on the same property as the homeless shelter’s upcoming Redding Day Resource Center.
Now an empty building, that metal structure is being turned into a $4 million, seven-day-a-week assistance center, where people without a permanent place to live can visit mental health providers, wash laundry, get medical help, take a shower, go through job training, have a cup of coffee, hop on a computer to look for work or just get off their feet and rest in a dignified setting.
Renovations on the 8,000-squre-foot Redding Day Resource Center are set to start in June and the center will open next year, said Wandro. A loan and grant from the city of Redding will fund the construction and operation of the day resource center.
Good News Rescue Mission Executive Director Jonathan Anderson said along with the upcoming Redding Day Resouce Center, the group’s newly-announced residential adult rehabilitation center will further expand the shelter program’s “behaviorial health campus, right here. We are super excited about this as there is a massive need in our community for it.”
Among people in Shasta County who receive health benefits from Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for low-income people, about 5,000 struggle with drug and alcohol dependence each year, he said. In total, he said, about 14,000 people in Shasta County have substance use disorder.
According to state health officials, Shasta County ranked fifth out of California’s 58 counties in terms of all opioid-related overdose death rates in 2017.
“There is a massive lack of treatment in our community for people struggling with that,” he said.
The Mission currently offers a 12 month, faith-based recovery program at its shelter in Redding on South Market Street, next door to where the new buildings are going up. The upcoming adult rehabilitation center will double the group’s capacity to provide longer-term, intensive recovery services for more people.
Since the new residential and day programs are being built with government funds, neither will be faith based, Wandro said.
Michele Chandler covers public safety, dining and whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@gannett.com. Please support our entire newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding Good News Rescue Mission building $17.8 million residential drug recovery center
Reporting by Michele Chandler, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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