Published On: Fri, Jun 9th, 2023

New 25,000 Square Foot Building Opens as Beacon of Hope for Homeless in Our Community

CEO Diana Stanley and client/Joshua Catering apprentice Kayla Moore cut the cake celebrating The Lord’s Place being “Home for Good.”

The Lord’s Place welcomes clients to its new building

Boca Raton, FL – After nearly two years of construction on its former headquarters, The Lord’s Place is “home for good” at the Fortin Family Campus, located at 2808 North Australian Avenue. The new 25,000-square-foot client service center is fully open and began serving clients on June 7, 2023. 

According to the creative vision adopted by the board of directors, “The Fortin Family Campus, at The Lord’s Place, is a beacon of hope for all who enter its doors. It reflects the importance and impact of the mission of The Lord’s Place – ‘breaking the cycle of homelessness in Palm Beach County.’ This building–a gift from and to the community–reflects our leadership in the homeless arena in South Florida and beyond.”

Since its inception in 1979, The Lord’s Place has been finding solutions for the most vulnerable members of our community. The agency has grown from a small, grass-roots soup kitchen in downtown West Palm Beach to almost 45 years later employing 160 full-time staff members to serve more than 1,800 men, women, and children annually with wrap-around services to break the cycle of homelessness throughout Palm Beach County. The “right sizing” of the main campus brings the plethora of services for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness under one roof. 

The new facility expresses this community’s recognition of the significant challenges confronted in ending homelessness. Hidden in the shadows of Palm Beach County’s paradise is the reality that on any given night there are an estimated 3,000 men, women, and children who do not have a safe place to call home. The building is a concrete expression of the community’s commitment to meeting those challenges in ways that promote the dignity of the population served.

For The Lord’s place, ending homelessness means being stably housed but it also means offering the services and skills training that ensures its clients become productive citizens in our communities. 

“The Fortin Family Campus now fulfills an unmet need in our community: serving as an all-day, one-stop location for the unsheltered population–men, women, and children,” stated CEO Diana Stanley. 

At the center of the new facility is Café Joshua – a restaurant-type program where those experiencing homelessness receive a hot meal, kindness from staff and volunteers, and start the conversation about a brighter future.  Additionally, there is a state-of-the-art catering kitchen, the agency’s job training program, reentry center, and administrative offices. 

Equally important, is the resurrection of a Homeless Engagement Center where the unhoused can escape the elements, connect with others, feel loved and cared for, and, most of all, begin their journey toward housing, stability, and purpose.

An official ribbon cutting will take place in the fall of 2023. In the meantime, for community members interested in touring the facility, please email Info@TheLordsPlace.org

About The Lord’s Place Home for Good Capital Campaign: 

The Lord’s Place launched its largest-ever campaign in 2019 with a goal of $20 million in a bold effort to expand services and break the cycle of homelessness for an increased number of men, women, and children in Palm Beach County. Understanding the necessity of The Lord’s Place’s mission and work in our community, The Fortin Foundation of Florida stepped forward with a $4 million lead gift to the agency’s Home for Good Campaign when it was publicly launched at that year’s Ending Homelessness Breakfast. Since then, 208 donors in total followed suit to surpass the $20 million threshold and turn a community dream into a reality. 

In addition to funding the construction of the new 25,000-square-foot client services center, the capital campaign is also allowing The Lord’s Place to increase its supportive housing inventory by constructing a multigenerational facility in Lake Worth to be known as Burckle Place III and sustain funding to ensure more individuals and families get Home for Good

About The Lord’s Place
For more than 40 years, The Lord’s Place has been working to break the cycle of homelessness for men, women, and children in Palm Beach County, FL, through innovative, compassionate and effective services. It provides supportive and graduate housing at twelve locations; operates social enterprises including Joshua Catering; provides job training and placement services, clinical and care coordination, and community engagement services; and has a highly-successful reentry program helping men and women transitioning from incarceration. For more information visit thelordsplace.org

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