Pastor Tom Barber

The People’s City Mission has some very rich history.  In 1909 they purchased their first facility in downtown Lincoln near N and 9th Street. This building had been a well-known house of prostitution called Lydia’s House. It proved to be a great location for Christian outreach. Our first program focused on providing food and shelter to transient men. Many of them were German-Russian immigrants, and PCM assisted these early settlers of Lincoln with English classes and a German Sunday School.

 

During the 1960’s they added a number of new programs, including Advocacy and support of Native Americans, family housing for women with children, rehabilitation program for alcoholics and drug addicts, and a Lincoln Police Chaplaincy program.

 

In 1987 they relocated to a larger facility at 110 “Q” Street. As a result, the number of beds available at PCM increased from 60 to 110. Over $1 million dollars in community support was raised, which completely paid for this expansion.

 

In 1990 they opened the Mission’s Homeless Prevention Center to distribute groceries, clothing and household items to needy families in the community.  In 2002 they were able to expand their primarily facilities at 110 Q Street to accommodate more people and house a longer-term rehabilitation program for women. This expansion increased our bed count from 110 to 210.

 

We opened the HIS Center (Homeless Intervention Service) to provide overnight shelter for chronically homeless men. This increased our total number of beds from 210 to 260. We also took over the operations of DayWatch, a day housing program for transient men. Our services include shelter, lunch, dinner, laundry and mail services.

 

The People’s City Mission Housing Corporation (502(c)(4)) and Curtis Center Limited Partnership was formed in 2007.  The Curtis Transitional Housing Center was opened in 2008, which has 60 single-occupancy rental units for men and is staffed to offer training, counseling, and education to the tenants. A smaller transitional living space was opened within the Family Shelter area to house up to 12 women. The number of people staying at our 110 Q Street campus now exceeds 300 per night.

 

We also moved the HIS Center (bunk space for 101 men) to the west side of the Mission Home building located at 110 Q Street and a special day area known as the Agape Cafe was opened for the use of the HIS Center guests and men who need a place to go during the day.

 

The Mission Bean Coffee Corporation was established in 2008 as a for-profit entity with all profits, after taxes, going to People’s City Mission operating budget.  The PCM Medical Clinic opened in 2009, providing free medical, dental, vision, and counseling care to uninsured Lincoln residents. Most staff members are volunteers from the community, from medical professionals to receptionists to greeters.  In 2010 A smaller transitional living space was opened within the Family Shelter area to house up to 12 women. The number of people staying at our 110 Q Street campus now exceeds 300 per night. A Veterans Program in conjunction with the VA started a specialized program for vets recovering from military service-related issues was established in 2010.

 

The City Mission in 2011 established the “Starry Nights” annual Christmas celebration for the Lincoln community with decorated trees and various activities.  In 2012 they set up safe place sites around Lincoln where kids can go whenever they feel like they are in danger.  A program was started in 2013 for transitional housing for women using seven private rooms in the family shelter.  The “Toss Box” program was started to collect textile donations from the community.  In 2014 a church was started at the Mission for those who wanted to attend Sunday services and not having a church congregation of their own.  It has grown considerably since that time.

 

A Memorial Garden was built where homeless men and women who have passed away can be remembered on a memorial wall, and have their ashes scattered if so desired in 2016.  In 2017 Only251 was launched to feed one person one meal, once a month, for $2.51.  They also launched the Only251 shuttle to provide transportation for guests and lunches/waters for the homeless around Lincoln.  They also moved the Homeless Prevention Center to 68^th & P Street.

 

A few other things that they offer is:

Emergency Shelter - Emergency Shelter is offered for 24-48 hours. Emergency Shelter policies vary based on seasonal needs. Every guest of the Family Shelter is provided with a bed (or cot), three meals a day, shower facilities, personal hygiene items and laundry facilities.

 

Extended-Stay Program - A longer-term shelter is available for eligible families and single women working towards stable, independent living. Each guest participating in this program will be assigned a PCM caseworker to help create individual goals and milestones.

 

Classes are offered throughout the week and cover a variety of topics including AA, Life Skills, Employment Readiness, Stress Management, Nutrition, and Self-Care. Community resource referrals and employment assistance are also provided to help each guest move towards independent living.

 

As part of this program, guests are expected to attend classes, volunteer in the kitchen, do daily chores, attend house meetings and meet weekly with their caseworker. We work with Drug Court, Health and Human Services, and do drug and alcohol testing when necessary.

 

One-on-one counseling, Bible studies, and Sunday church services are available to all guests.

 

Children and Youth - For school-aged kids staying at the Shelter, we provide evening, summer, and holiday programming that is supervised by caring adults and volunteers. Activities include games, crafts, field trips, snacks, tutoring, Bible Stories, and other age-appropriate activities.

 

Pastor Tom told us he has been with the People’s City Mission 17 years.  In 2021 the served 30,000 individuals and got 20 million dollars in donations.  Most of that support, about 85%, came from individuals, 126 churches, several businesses with only 2% from grants.  They usually serve around 230,000 meals in a year.  What Pastor Tom would like to see in the next three or four years is a shelter-built especially for women. 

Since 2020 when the COVID pandemic started, the People’s City Mission had very few COVID patients, mainly because they asked everyone to wear masks, have their temperatures taken before entering the Mission and put into place strict policies.  These policies included wearing masks, temperature checks, when vaccines came available get a vaccine shot.  If someone did test positive, they were isolated from those that were negative.  It kept the cases down at the Mission.

 

 People’s City Mission does a lot of work with those who are homeless to get them back into our community as whole individuals.