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The Open Door Mission already has decided on the perfect gift for Christmas 2009 — a new Lydia House.
Lydia House now is at 3030 N. 21st St. East and has the capacity for 24 single- and two-parent families and 26 single women. That property is owned by the Omaha Airport Authority, which runs nearby Eppley Airfield. Early this year, the Airport Authority purchased the land Lydia House now sits on for about $450,000, said Don Smithey, the authority's executive director. He said the airport charges the mission $10 a year in rent. Gregory said the Open Door Mission will continue to operate the existing Lydia House until the new shelter is complete. The new facility is budgeted at $9.5 million, including two years of operating costs, and will have space for 46 families and 72 single women, she said. Gregory said she hopes the new Lydia House will be up and running "before the first snow flies" in late 2009. "It would be a great gift to give to the community by Christmas," she said. She said a formal groundbreaking will be held Oct. 14, with construction expected to take 12 to 14 months. Gregory said the mission has to turn away 100 families and more than 100 single women each month because of limited space of the current Lydia House. "We're just on top of each other for space," she said. "We need a lot more." She said she is especially pleased that each family unit in the new Lydia House will have a private bathroom. She said there are many showers at the current Lydia House, but only one bathtub for about 60 children. In the new Lydia House, the family units will have a sleeping room for mom, a sleeping room for the children and a small kitchenette with a sink, microwave and refrigerator that will allow mothers to keep formula and food on hand. Gregory said that currently, mothers have to walk down a hallway to get bottles and formula — leaving their children alone. "It's really going to meet the family's needs," she said. Yulice Andrews, 37, said the separate sleeping quarters and kitchen amenities will give families "a sense of hope and sanity." Andrews, a graduate of the Lydia House sobriety and work program, said privacy was hard to come by when she and her then 9-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son stayed there. "With two different sexes in the family, everyone wants some privacy," she said. Quiet time also was hard to come by in the family units, said Marie Grant, 30. Grant and her three children lived in the family units in the spring while Grant was going through the recovery program. "You have to read a lot of material, and it's distracting (to have the kids in the same room)," she said. Grant said she is "jealous" of the "beautiful" new amenities that will be in the new Lydia House. Andrews said that in the current Lydia House families sign up for 90 minutes of kitchen and dining time — and each family looks forward to its turn. "The kitchen will be valuable so they don't have to rush their meal, rush their grace, rush their conversation," Andrews said. The new Lydia House also will have two tutoring labs for children and teenagers, a learning center for adults, a home economics lab, two areas for child care to allow mothers to go to school or work and classrooms that can double as conference rooms. Construction of the new Lydia House will be paid for out of the $21 million Rebuilding Lives Campaign fundraising effort. About $13.5 million has been raised to date, Gregory said. Future Open Door Mission projects include a $700,000 renovation of the men's shelter in the spring and construction of 46 permanent apartments in the fall of 2009. • Contact the writer: 444-3110, chelsea.keeney@owh.com |
| Open Door Mission 2828 North 23rd Street East Omaha, NE 68110 |
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Open Door Mission is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization Click here to view our 501(c)(3) determination letter.