Gospel Rescue Mission’s Center of Opportunity now open

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - After months of preparation, it's opening day at the Center of Opportunity.

The Gospel Rescue Mission's unique homeless shelter has room for 350 people.

Before noon hit on Monday, they already had 80 people show up seeking help.

Inside the Center of Opportunity, something as simple as playing the piano is a note Brandon Gallego hasn’t had in awhile.

"The comforts of home that I didn't have," said Gallego. "I haven't even been around a piano since I grew up."

It's day one of the center's operations and Gallego is among the many who showed up here looking for hope.

Gospel Rescue Mission calls it radical hospitality. From the moment anyone walks through the door, those at the Center of Opportunity want people to feel welcomed.

Michael Watson checked into the shelter late Monday morning.

He spent two years on the streets battling addiction.

"It's a bad place to be," Watson said. "When you're already in a bad situation, it makes it double times the worse. It enhances the sentence on you."

He lost his mother this last year.

"I was getting over some things in my head and working out some things in my heart," he said. "It was just better for me to do that alone in my own destruction."

Watson would sometimes go days without food, but at the Center of Opportunity, he’ll have a consistent meal.

After what he’s been through lately, he said he’s just thankful for a bed to call his own.

"Through the elements and through drug addiction," Watson said. "Now it's all going to be put behind me."

Watson and Gallego are both thankful to be given second chances and a comfortable place made to feel like home.

The Center of Opportunity says they are in need of volunteers to keep things moving smoothly and help people settle into this new home.

Copyright 2019 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved.