Heather Engle said she entered a detox program for indigent people over 16 years ago. Had the facility turned her away due to a lack of space, Engle said she “wouldn’t have survived one more week.”
She is now the CEO for the Las Vegas Rescue Mission—a nonprofit homeless shelter located on two city blocks in Downtown Las Vegas.
“Because they took me in with no money, no insurance, no questions, I’m able to stand here today and have the honor of working with the people I get to work with and serving the population I get to serve,” she said.
The shelter, which helps hundreds of people daily and provides roughly 30,000 monthly meals, is growing with a 49,708-square-foot expansion for its complex on West Bonanza Road.
“The only thing that we see in people is recovery, we don’t see anything other than that; it’s an incredible environment and it’s a safe environment for that,” Engle said. “We are all one tragedy, paycheck, something terrible happening to us that’s gonna change our life and it happens … and so, we have to maintain what we’re doing.”
The Las Vegas City Council on October 18 in a unanimous vote agreed on the expansion and updated site development plan for the project, which will provide more space to aid the region’s homeless population. A January 2023 count by Clark County found there were roughly 6,500 homeless individuals in the Las Vegas Valley—an increase of 900 since 2022.
Engle said the whole campus needs to be renovated and the costs are estimated to be around $35 million to $40 million. Some of the buildings will need to be torn down and rebuilt, especially due to concerns about accessibility for disabled people, she added.
Five new buildings will be added in total, said Erik Swendseid, vice president of design at EV&A Architects, the firm working on the expansion.
Office space for the mission’s roughly 45 employees, internet and security for the staff also is “antiquated” since the nonprofit’s campus was founded over 50 years ago in 1970, Engle said.
Beds are becoming more limited as the population in Las Vegas grows, she added. The mission has about 96 beds for men and 24 for women in its addiction treatment program.
Shaking her head, Engle said that sometimes have women seeking treatment have been turned away or put on a waiting list for services, which “is a very unpleasant thing to do.”
In 2022, 365 men and 111 women were admitted into the addiction treatment program, said Alyson Martinez, clinical director at the mission. But beds for women have been “completely full” for the past two months, she said.
The expansion will bring about 700 beds spread across the mission’s various programs, according to documents from EV&A Architects.
“I’m a product of the Las Vegas Rescue Mission and I’m forever grateful for the help I was able to get over there,” said Garfield Wolfe, a counselor at the mission. “I’m just forever grateful, having a mission there because there’s a lot of people that could use these services in our community.”
Wolfe said he had been homeless most of his life and was in and out of the prison system before being taken by his parole officer to the mission in March 2020.
He went on to graduate from its substance abuse recovery program and was hired on to the staff. He is also attending UNLV.
The mission is also looking to expand its wraparound services and other programs, Engle said.
Over 200 families have been supported through the mission’s family program, Martinez said, and nearly 80% have since been permanently housed, she noted.
“I don’t think I had a full understanding or appreciation of the mission and the great work that you’re doing, so ... after hearing you today and our meeting ... you’ve become one of my favorite nonprofits,” said Councilwoman Nancy Brune, a volunteer at the mission. “So, thank you so much because the work that you’re doing is so important.”
This redevelopment and expansion have been in the works for about three years, Engle said. Councilman Cedric Crear said “we need more investment into the community” and expressed the council’s “full support” of the expansion. The mission will remain open during construction.
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