AUGUSTA — When Army veteran Dave Austin found the veterans’ shelter at Bread of Life Ministries, he was lost, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, in recovery from drug addiction and fresh out of jail with nowhere else to go.

The shelter – one of only two homeless shelters in Augusta – took him in and gave him a hot meal and a bed. Also, Austin said at the groundbreaking of a Bread of Life shelter expansion, it gave him a fresh start.

“This was the start to my journey to where I am today,” said Austin, who now has an apartment in Augusta and volunteers to drive Bread of Life’s van to collect and distribute food for needy people. “I was on a 30-year lost road. There is no place I know that has what they have here. They have a plan for everybody. And they say take the ball and go with it. I took that ball and I was up at 7 a.m. every day, ready to do whatever I needed to get my life back on track.”

The 26-bed Bread of Life facility for families will be expanded to 40 beds. Augusta also has a veterans’ shelter.

The goal of the expansion, as noted in the organization’s fundraising efforts, is to no longer have to say “no” when homeless people are looking for a bed.

Executive Director John Richardson said the shelter probably turns away about 180 people and families a year.

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“Josh takes calls every single day: ‘I’m homeless. I’m in the woods. I’m in my car. What can you do to help me?’ ” Richardson said of Josh Baker, a shelter attendant at Bread of Life. “And then we have to say ‘no’ because we don’t have a bed available. We get 600 of those calls a year. So our board became courageous and said we’re not going to say ‘no’ again.”

The veterans’ shelter, next to the family shelter, also will be expanded, adding three new bedrooms at the facility, which takes up to 12 veterans a night and which Richardson said is almost always full. The expansion there will double the number of bedrooms to six, add another full bathroom, increase accessibility and double the size of the kitchen area.

James Marcoux, a Marine with eight years of military service – six on active duty – now rents a home in Augusta. He recently became a father and also delivers food for Bread of Life. He said he came to the veterans’ shelter with PTSD and found it was a place where he could collect his thoughts and reorganize his life. He said the shelter helped him turn back into the person he was when he joined the Marines.

Shelter officials held a ceremony to break ground for the project Tuesday despite not yet having the money to pay for it. Richardson said he is confident the remaining money will be raised – so far they’ve raised $407,000 of their $571,000 goal.

“We’re going to break ground and trust in faith that the rest of that money is going to come,” he said.

Workers with Lajoie Brothers, the contractor, said they had planned to start work Tuesday; but because of heavy rainfall, they decided to wait until Wednesday.

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“We see the need,” Joe Lajoie said, “and we’re excited to start and move forward with it.”

Richardson said both shelters will continue to operate during construction.

Scott Fosset’s parents were among the seven families that founded Bread of Life and created a homeless shelter 34 years ago. He said his 81-year-old mother, Nancy, couldn’t make it to the groundbreaking Tuesday but she is thrilled with the project.

Victoria Abbott, board member and treasurer for Bread of Life, said the expansion and fundraising that makes it possible “exemplifies neighbors helping neighbors.”

 


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