Salvation Army looks to expand Conroe center
Group launches campaign to raise $1.5 million
March 9, 2009
By Adam Bennett, Chronicle Correspondent

Feeding the needy is the Salvation Army’s business, and business is good in the organization’s Conroe Center.

Six days a week, local church groups prepare and serve lunch for those that have fallen on hard times or that cannot provide for themselves.

Lately, so many men and women have come for the hot lunch at the facility on Avenue E that the lineup starts almost an hour before the food hits the plates.

“We’ve been serving upwards of 150 every day,” said Major David Robinson, who directs the Salvation Army’s Montgomery County operations. “We have them lined out the door to get lunch.”

The current space holds less than 50 people at one time.

The space crunch underscores the organization’s current challenges: too many people, too much to do and too little space.

So, the group is kicking off a campaign to raise $1.5 million to construct a 10,000 square foot complex adjacent to the current center to complement the existing space. The expansion would double the beds for the emergency shelter, increase the cafeteria size and create a larger multi-use area for more programs.

“There are a lot of things we’d like to do, we just don’t have the space now,” Robinson said.

Point to the faltering economy or poor choices, but there are more people in need of more services today than just a few years ago, Robinson said.

Aside from the meals, the Conroe facility’s emergency shelter has been packed full lately too.

The building has overnight space for 20 men, 18 women and two family rooms.

The women’s space may only average about seven or eight on any given night, but the men’s side is full or overfull most nights.

“We regularly get about 25 men in the overnight shelter,” Robinson said. “That overflow is a pretty regular thing.”

Juan Alanis, spokesman for the Salvation Army Greater Houston Area Command, said the new facility would solve those problems and offer new opportunities that are not possible in the current building.

The preliminary plan is to build a new center across the street from the Avenue E site on land now owned by the Salvation Army.

The building would be constructed to complement the current facility, adding classroom space, cafeteria room and space for more beds.

“The idea behind really is to offer more programs,” Alanis said. “The building we have is mostly a shelter now and serves as the only temporary housing shelter in the area. With this, we could offer a wealth of classes and house up to 60 people per night.”

Robinson said the new facility would be a 24-hour operation as well, meaning the organization could offer much needed programming for homeless men and women during the day.

“We’re hoping to do a veteran’s program covering drug and alcohol rehab, life skills and whatever is needed,” he said. “We are also looking at a monitored area to put computers. A lot of guys go to the library every day to use the computers and hang out there. Our building is not secure for that now, but we could have staff at the new one.”

He said he is also looking into possibilities for educational programs—like GED and vocational classes—to help get people back on their feet.

“Houston has programs like that, but we don’t,” he said. “We’re not big enough now. We’re all crammed into one building and there just isn’t the space.”

But he concedes that the fundraising effort will be harder than filling a programming schedule.

The Salvation Army saw a huge drop in its Christmastime “Red Kettle” drive—the largest fundraiser of the year. For 2008, donations to the organization were down 17 percent.

Alanis said that has had a major impact from the top down in the Salvation Army.

“It’s impacted everything,” he said. “More families that would be helping may be in need themselves right now.”

However, he said as the economy picks up, hopefully so does the fundraising.

Robinson said the Conroe Center will host a fish fry in June and are gearing up for more efforts in the short-term.

He’s also issuing an open invitation for people to see what the Salvation Army does with its donations and tour the building.

“A lot of people don’t understand what exactly we do here and how we help,” he said. “The community supports us pretty well and I think if more people saw the need, more would help.”