After moving to an improved location on Doresy Street late last year, Good News at Noon has been hard at work serving the homeless community of Gainesville under a new roof.
Good News at Noon accomplished $1.1 million in total services in 2022, according to provided statistics. With over 1,100 homeless individuals served that year, the staff and volunteers are working to continue those efforts of feeding, clothing and ministering to those who come through their doors.
While it took everyone a moment to acclimate to the new building, Director Ken Gossage said they have more than doubled their space since moving in just before Christmas last year.
“Good News at Noon is probably best known for its outreach to homeless people, it's probably the only place that welcomes the homeless people that are on the street during the day,” Gossage said. “The idea is just to show them that they've got a lot of value and they can do more with their lives than just live out on the streets.”
The shelter on Doresy Street offers more than just a roof overhead. They host Sunday church services weekly, and every day volunteers and staff members are serving lunch and dinner at noon and 7 p.m., respectively.
Good News at Noon’s new building came with a slew of upgrades, including a commercial dishwasher, a much larger kitchen, administration space, resident lodging and a much-needed clothing closet upgrade. The resident spaces now have room for 20 women and 40 men.
Another huge improvement over the previous location comes in the form of washers and dryers.
“We had one washer and dryer, kind of a home-type machine in our old place,” Gossage said. “And I mean, just between towels and sheets, that's all we could afford to do all day long. We had various donors that just said, ‘Hey, I just want my money to go to the laundromat.’”
The new building hosts six commercial-grade washers and dryers each, which has been a major help to not only the transitional residents but also the homeless who stop by for a meal.
Following the transition, Good News at Noon had enough funds left over to purchase a building across the street to the east, which has future plans to become a hotel-style apartment building offering affordable housing to those residents who graduate from the ministry program.
Official plans for that development are yet to be released.
Another aspect now being utilized in the new space is the ability to more easily track what Gossage calls “outputs and outcomes.” Those seeking services at Good News at Noon have a card created with a barcode that is scanned whenever they are given certain amenities. For example, if someone is given a pair of jeans or a jacket, that will be inputted into the system as trackable data, so volunteers and staff are aware of what is coming in and going out.
“We've more than doubled our space, which is a big deal because we didn't really have the space to do much of anything but house people, feed them, try and do some clothing and showers and stuff,” Gossage said. “So it's opened up a lot of opportunities for new things to happen here.”
Moving forward, Good News at Noon hopes to implement classes taught to program residents in a bigger way than they currently are.
“That's the next step that we're hoping to be able to take Good News at Noon is create not just a place where they can come and hang out, but somewhere where they can work on things they need to work with, reconnect with people and just really start seeing change happen in their life.”
A video including an interview with Ken Gossage and a tour of the Good News at Noon facility can be found at the top of this page.
