Mel Trotter adding day shelter | News

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -  The area's largest homeless shelter is undergoing some major renovations.

Mel Trotter is adding on to almost every area of its downtown location, but the biggest addition will be the  number of hours it serves the homeless.

When the sun rises over the Mel Trotter shelter, out go the homeless.  Last winter, after a local daytime shelter closed, more men and women seemed to spend their daylight hours by heading into the public library.

"Public drunkenness, generally, or there are medical issues sometimes associated with that," said Grand Rapids Library Director Marcia Warner.

Warner says the number of incidents filed in the library from October 2010 - January 2011 jumped 82 percent, enough for Rev. Daniels to start making his own calls.

"There's a lot of loitering in the parks, a lot of panhandling," said Rev. Daniels. "We felt it was our duty to do more."

His sense of duty has led to the construction of a new day center and food pantry inside the same Mel Trotter location, as well as an expansion of the public inebriation shelter.

"We are the official drunk tank for the city of Grand Rapids," he said.

The inebriation shelter currently has seven beds and saved local emergency departments almost $500,000 last year; Mel Trotter is adding two beds and looks to boost savings to the city even more.

Daniels says the day shelter should only help. Three hundred men and women pass through nightly in the winter; he expects 135 will come back during the day.

"When you build it, they'll come," he said.

But Daniels stresses, they'll come with a set of expectations already in place.

"It's not going to be a passive sitting and waiting," he said.

Michigan Works and mental health agencies will be waiting for them.

"There will be three offices for counseling," he said.

Mel Trotter Director of Shelter Services Rev. Leonard McElveen says men have already shared their excitement with him.

"A lot of them are living in despair, and this is actually going to give them some hope for making some changes in their lives," he said.

"I think it gives a more meaningful life," said Warner. "The more they have, the options, the happier they'll be."

The new day center, food pantry, and public inebriation shelter will open in five weeks.

Rev. Daniels says it only took Mel Trotter three months to raise $645,000 for this project, but they still need to raise a little more money before they open.

The day center hours will be 9a.m. to 5p.m.