History

1953

Mr. Ray Chastain, along with his wife Alice, and other caring and concerned Christians in Tucson, prayerfully founded Gospel Rescue Mission.

1954

Newspaper article announced our move to a new larger location on Meyer Street.

1956

We moved to the corner of 9th Avenue and 28th Street in South Tucson where we expanded our homeless outreach.

1990

Law enforcement began bringing abused women and their children to the Men’s Center. We converted some offices to make room for them, but that wasn’t an ideal situation.

1992

In order to address the rising numbers of homeless women and their children, we opened Bethany House, a shelter specifically for them, on Miracle Mile.

2004

We expanded the Men’s Center by adding a dormitory to increase capacity from 60 to 110.

2009

For years, we had been turning away women and children because we did not have the space. However, we felt that turning away one woman or child was turning away one too many, so we purchased the Wayward Winds Lodge to accommodate the growing need.

2011

We moved into our new Women’s and Children’s Center just down the street from Bethany House.

2016

A fire broke out at our Donation Center. No one was hurt, but our Community Ministries office, two vehicles, and all the donations in the yard were destroyed. Authorities later determined the cause of the fire was arson. The office was rebuilt in 2017.

2017

The fire at the Donation Center triggered an external review of the fire code at the Men’s Center. As a result, we had to reduce the number of beds from 110 to 55. This devastating decision led then-Executive Director Roy Tullgren and Associate Executive Director Lisa Chastain on a faith journey to find a new home for our Men’s Center.

2018

Humberto and Czarina Lopez, of the H.S. Lopez Family Foundation, purchased the former Holidome, a 148,506-square-foot hotel and conference center, and approached us with the vision of turning it into a “one-stop shop” or  “center of opportunity” to serve the homeless.

2019

The Center of Opportunity opened, allowing us to serve the homeless and hurting in a far greater capacity than ever before.

God Has Brought Us So Far

2020

To help our guests move from homelessness to self-sufficiency, we offer them more than soup, soap, and salvation. As managing partner of the Center of Opportunity, we connect everyone who enters our doors first with basic needs like shelter, food, and clothing, but then with valuable resources to help them on the journey out of homelessness. Examples of these include recovery, employment, and housing programs, and services such as medical, dental, and mental health care; job skills training, legal advocacy, transitional housing, veterans services, and more.

Learn more about The Center of Opportunity