Grace Centers of Hope opens new center for women and children

PONTIAC, Mich. (WJBK) - Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac is Michigan's oldest and largest homeless shelter. Now, it's expanding its facilities to address the increasing and alarming number of homeless women and children.

The new William A. Davis Women and Children's Center opens on Wednesday. It's a three-level, 22,000 square foot facility that houses 106 beds in 25 semi-private rooms. It's located at 210 N. Perry Street in Pontiac.

Pastor Kent Clark, the CEO of Grace Centers of Hope, says this building used to be boarded up and abandoned, with homeless people living in the basement. A few years ago, he started the Quarter Campaign to raise enough quarters to pay cash for the building.

FOX 2's Roop Raj visited the new center to show us inside. You can watch in the video player above.

"Last year, we turned away 8,500 moms with their kids because we didn't have room, and so our desire for years now is to open a new home for moms with their children and that's what's happening today," he says. "So, it's a dream come true really."

Pastor Clark says the number of homeless women and children is out of sight, especially in Oakland County where heroin use and overdose deaths are at an epidemic rate.

"We see more young people coming to us hooked on heroin than any other drug," he says. "There is no one more hopeless than a drug addict."

For more information, go to www.gracecentersofhope.org.