Fort Worth’s Salvation Army shelter is a better place for families experiencing homelessness after a monthslong renovation, shelter and city leaders said Tuesday.
The Salvation Army cut the ribbon on the improved facility on E. Lancaster Avenue Tuesday morning. Tarrant County has seen a spike in family homelessness over the past few years.
The J.E. & L.E. Mabee Social Service Center needed an overhaul to better house family groups, Major Paul McFarland said. He leads the Salvation Army’s five-county North Texas Area Command.
"We quickly knew that we were going to need to change our housing situation here to better serve those clients in need. And that need continues to grow,” he said.
The renovations aimed to create more privacy for families.
Crews converted the shelter’s dorms, originally designed to house single men and women, into what they call pods. Now there are individual cubicles, separated by low walls, where whole families can stay together.
This setup, which can house 25 families, gives people a sense of ownership over their space, said Deborah Bullock, director of adult and family services.
“One of the things we want to do here, is we want to instill dignity and unity,” she said.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker joined a tour of the updated shelter.
In one room of pods, the beige walls have been repainted bright white and baby blue. The dingy tile floors have been replaced with faux-wood flooring, giving the space less of an institutional feel.
The difference is stark from how the shelter previously looked, Parker said in her remarks at the ribbon cutting.
She remembered a previous visit, where she spoke to a mom trying to put her two-year-old down for a nap under fluorescent lights.
“They had shelter over their head here, but the staff made sure to tell me this was not the environment they wanted to invite families into," Parker said.
During the renovation, which started in September 2023, the Salvation Army placed families in hotels, motels and at a makeshift shelter in a gym at Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist Church.
“Two months ago, when we opened back up, we were at capacity,” Bullock said. “Now some other shelters are expanding their capacity to help with that."
Right now, about 60 individuals are staying at the Salvation Army shelter, she said.
The problem of family homelessness worsened after the end of federal pandemic relief programs, according to the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition’s 2024 State of the Homeless Report. Historic levels of rental assistance money dried up. Eviction moratoriums ended.
“With these resources now going away, many families in our community are struggling to stay afloat,” the report states.
In 2023, 811 families in Tarrant County experienced homelessness, according to the report. That's up from 688 the year prior.
Most families point to an inability to pay rent or find an affordable unit as the reason they’re experiencing homelessness, the report states.
“Affordable housing is truly a crisis in Fort Worth and North Texas — in Texas — and I'm hopeful that more communities continue to work on these issues today,” Parker said.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on X @MirandaRSuarez.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
