Oldest city shelter will double in size

Chinatown’s New York City Rescue Mission — the city’s oldest homeless shelter — has begun a $9 million expansion project, and construction is already underway, DNAinfo reported. In roughly a year and a half, the building will have three additional stories stuck atop its building at 90 Lafayette Street.

The work will effectively double the size of the building to a total of 25,000 square feet and more than double the number of beds to 240 from 100. The expansion has been over 10 years in the planning, as it took years to get needed funding and approvals. The money has been secured and the shelter now seeks an additional $2 million for increased operational costs in the expanded facility.

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The shelter told DNAinfo that demand for shelter space jumped nearly 30 percent between 2009 and 2010, following the onset of the recession and it has not since come down. [DNAinfo]