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Sioux Falls, SD (KELO AM) - Less than a year from announcing the vision for a more Comprehensive approach to providingneeded services for the homeless and vulnerable in the Sioux Falls area, the Bishop DudleyHospitality House is preparing to accept its first guests the night of January 12.
Tours of the nearly ready building, located at 101 N. Indiana, will be available to neighbors and thepublic on January 11, 2-4 p.m. Bishop Paul J. Swain will formally bless the facility following a shortprogram at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, January 12. More tours will follow.
“There are a number of finishing touches to complete and we likely will not have all our neededsupplies for the first few days, but we will be ready enough to get guests out of the cold,” said ChadCampbell, executive director of the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House.
The Bishop Dudley Hospitality House will provide overnight emergency shelter for men, womenand families, daytime services currently provided at the Good Shepherd Center, and additionalservices from existing service providers using a hub of offices at the new facility.
An enormous community response resulted from the vision outlined by Bishop Swain of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls last February. It began with a dedicated steering committee of knowledgeable service providers who helped shape the design of the building and the services to be provided, continued with the Task Force of community leaders who took on the fundraising needed, and culminated with the donors who so generously responded to the request for support.
The former Good Shepherd board of directors has transitioned to become the Bishop DudleyHospitality House board of directors and will oversee the ecumenical ministry.
Over $4.8 million has been raised to date to complete the purchase and construction and to provideinitial operating support for the ministry, including the establishment of an operating endowment.The total includes cash donations, pledges, in-kind services and donations of goods. Over 1000donors, including individuals, organizations, businesses and churches have participated thus far.
The name, the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House, honors the spirit of generously and selflesslyserving the poor so often exhibited by Bishop Paul Dudley, who served the east river Catholicdiocese from 1979 to 1995. He helped found a number of feeding and sheltering ministries and often volunteered at them. That same spirit has been evident throughout the evolution of the BDHH effort.