Crossroads Mission Avenue expanding into Lexington

LEXINGTON, Neb. (KSNB) - Crossroads Mission Avenue has been serving central Nebraska for nearly 40 years, and now they have plans to expand.

Fundraising is underway for capital campaign to bring homeless services to Dawson County.

Crossroads will be presented a check on Monday for $80,000 on Monday to help them with the nonprofits plan to set up a shelter and transitional housing in Lexington.

Healthy Blue is making the donation to the $1.5 million project.

Currently, Crossroads opened up a thrift store at the spot where it will eventually go.

Crossroads Executive Director Daniel Buller said adding this service in Lexington is essential in the western part of the state.

Buller said they had a mom and 3 small daughters that were homeless in Lexington, also a single young lady that was being evicted from a hotel in Lexington.

“During these cold temperatures, it can be so dangerous for people to be out,” he said. ”So what Crossroads is doing, we’re shifting our focus from just having emergency homeless shelter beds, and we’ve developed long-term transitional living solutions.”

Buller said they are running over capacity in their facilities in Hastings, Grand Island and Kearney.

“We’re seeing a lot of people come from that portion of the state, that region, so we knew that the need was out there. So our board and myself started talking about how and where to move to that region of the state to meet the need.”

He said that many communities are underserved in the sense that people don’t have access to homeless shelter services and transitional living services. Buller mentioning that he’s heard from sheriff’s offices out in the panhandle who have brought people to stay at one of their facilities.

Buller added that Crossroads does more than just house people.

“It is a bed to sleep in, it is food to eat - those are the basic needs that are met, but Crossroads goes beyond that. Our program is called Personal Resilience Program, we’re working closely to help train people how to be resilient in the crisis of addiction and mental health breakdown.”

Construction on the new shelter is scheduled to begin in early 2024.