The Fresno Rescue Mission announced plans Wednesday to relocate its main services along G Street to six temporary structures across the street by the end of 2017.

The Fresno Rescue Mission’s current main facility at 310 G St. is in the path of the impending high-speed rail route. The facility houses the nonprofit’s administrative offices, chapel, a dormitory that sleeps 100 men, a kitchen and dining hall where 750 to 800 meals a day are served, classrooms and a computer center.

While the high-speed rail is having a significant impact on the nonprofit in forcing the move, Fresno Rescue Mission CEO Don Eskes said the plan is work with the California High-Speed Rail Authority and ensure that no services are compromised during the transition.

“As we have worked with high-speed rail, the City of Fresno and all the other agencies involved, we are committed to No. 1 at no time having any of our services or programs disrupted and secondly, that all of the donations we receive from our very generous donor base go to ministry and programs. They are not funding the move,” Eskes said. “Even though the land footprint of the Fresno Rescue Mission will be somewhat smaller as we lose our main building, we believe we will be able to accommodate all of our needs.”

The temporary facility to be constructed on the south side of G Street will consist of two sprung structured buildings and four modular buildings. The project will cost just over $6 million, Eskes said, and the Fresno Rescue Mission anticipates operating its services out of the temporary buildings for three to five years while a new permanent campus is designed and constructed.
Plans for the permanent structure are currently in the design phase, but Eskes said the process is complicated as they wait to see what the area will look like with high-speed rail and the planned G Street realignment. Eskes did state that the new facility would be near the temporary one. As for the cost of a permanent campus, Eskes said that is also unknown as the Fresno Rescue Mission is still in negotiations with the state.

We are still in discussions and haven’t decided the final pricing [for the permanent campus],” Eskes said. “We still own those facilities and have not turned them over to the state yet. All we’re asking is that what is taken is replaced. We’ve had a very good relationship with high-speed rail in our discussions as well as the City of Fresno and all the other agencies. Those discussions have been very positive and we are committed to working with them for them to get what they need as well as to get what we need to continue our ministry.”

The nonprofit’s main building on G Street is not the organization’s only facility being impacted by high-speed rail. The Fresno Rescue Mission’s Rescue the Children women and children shelter has also been impacted by the closing of the Clinton overpass and re-routing of the Highway 99 south onramp at Clinton Avenue.

“That has had an impact but not as significant as this one,” Eskes said. “It is still somewhat significant because that is a nine-acre campus, and the city took one acre to build a street because of the closure of Parkway Drive, so we lost an acre of land and we’re negotiating about getting some land back because that was where we were going to be building a warehouse. We are also having to construct a new entry because of the loss of Parkway Drive and that will be done this year as well.”

Over the last five years, the Fresno Rescue Mission has served more than 7,000 men, women and children in its emergency shelters; 329 individuals entered respite care, saving local hospitals over $6 million; 482 individuals came through the sobering center, saving the police agencies in the city countless hours of booking time and saving the city and county many dollars.

At any given time, Eskes said the Fresno Rescue Mission has an average of 150 men and women in its addiction recovery program, saving local jails and prisons over $36 million over a five-year period. Also in the last five years, over 400 children at the Rescue the Children facility have been reunited with their mothers in a healthy, safe environment.