Keystone Mission will close its Innovation Centers in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton and cut over a dozen staff, according to the organization’s interim director.
"With the economy being the way it is right now, donations have dropped drastically," Justin Behrens said Tuesday. "We had to make tough decisions, and so the board voted on the closure of those two buildings."
The two buildings are the Scranton Innovation Center for Homelessness and Poverty at 12 W. Olive St., and the Wilkes-Barre Innovation Center for Homelessness and Poverty at 90 E. Union St.
Behrens said Keystone Mission will downsize its operations to the Wilkes-Barre Transformation Center near the Sherman Hills apartment complex in Wilkes-Barre.
The downsizing plan will take effect over the next four weeks, he said.
Keystone Mission serves people experiencing homelessness. The Wilkes-Barre Innovation Center houses an overnight shelter that opened in June of 2024.
The 365-Overnight Shelter has space for both men and women to sleep, and a room that can be converted for a family to stay in. It offers full showers, bathrooms, a closet of donated clothing, and laundry machines for guests to use.
The city of Wilkes-Barre gave Keystone Mission a grant of $109,500 in American Rescue Plan Act funding last year for the shelter.
That money was meant to fund the shelter’s operations for a year, Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown said at the time.
Wilkes-Barre Mayor 'disappointed' Keystone Mission will close
Brown said he did not know about the impending closure until Monday when he was contacted by WVIA News, then spoke to Behrens.
"I'm disappointed, first of all, that it's shutting down," he said. "But I'm also disappointed that no one from the Keystone Mission Board of Directors reached out to the mayor of Wilkes-Barre after we made a very, very sizable investment in putting this together."
He said the city initially invested $214,000 to bring the Innovation Center to Wilkes-Barre. Then, when former Executive Director Danielle Keith-Alexandre wanted to start the 365-Overnight shelter, the city provided the $109,500 grant for overnight staffing.
"Danielle (Keith-Alexandre) had said, after the first year ... we'll put this as part of our operating budget and continue to have a place to go seven nights a week," Brown said on Tuesday.
Keith-Alexandre left Keystone Mission in late January as part of what the board of directors later called a "leadership transition." Behrens assumed the role of interim director in February.
Behrens had been director of Keystone Mission until his own departure in 2023.
Dropping donations, increased staffing lead to shelter closure
Since its opening last year, Keystone Mission staff have said the shelter in Wilkes-Barre is consistently full. It can house around 70 people per night.
Behrens said Keystone Mission has seen a 42% decrease in financial donations over the last year.
"We get letters every single day that say, you know, we love what you're doing at the mission, but I can't donate anymore," he said. "We're living in a tough realm right now."
Grants have also declined according to Behrens. For example, he said a $150,000 grant from a foundation Keystone Mission normally relies on every year was reduced to zero this year.
"And the reason was they had limited funds," he said. "That's not just us. That's everybody."
Staffing costs, meanwhile, increased since the overnight shelter opened last summer.
When Behrens assumed the role of interim director in February he said he did not take a salary, but he had to bring on more staff to address "pushback" from the community.
The overnight shelter was open every night, Behrens said, but people complained about shelter residents waiting outside during a four-hour window when the Innovation Center would close in the afternoons.
"People didn't like the homeless hanging around outside. They didn't like them being in the community," Behrens said.
Brown said the city had received calls about crowded sidewalks around Keystone Mission during those four hours the shelter would shut down each day.
Brown said he did inform Behrens about those calls and asked him to work on a solution.
When Behrens decided to keep the building open 24 hours a day, he had to hire additional staff.
Behrens said Keystone Mission will downsize its staff of 20 to about six people who will work out of the Transformation Center.
Keystone Mission guests need new shelter
Behrens said the staff is working on finding new shelter for the people who rely on the Wilkes-Barre facility.
"We're connecting ourselves with our network that we have within our own system, and asking if they have any beds available or any room available," he said. "We're going to try to get individuals placed so that they have they still continue to have a roof over their head, and they still continue that transition process"
In Scranton, Behrens said the decision was a little bit easier. They had already downsized the day room services available there, and the building did not provide overnight shelter.
"We decided to downsize and let other organizations do what they were doing and allow them to be successful," Behrens said.
When the overnight shelter opened in Wilkes-Barre, Brown said the city no longer had to coordinate with Keystone Mission for Code Blue nights - times of extreme cold or heat when the organization would offer emergency shelter.
Now, Brown hopes that he can sit down with Behrens and possibly Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti to discuss how to find placements for the current guests of Keystone Mission and how to offer emergency shelter in Wilkes-Barre again.
"That's something else that we have to look at ... are there churches, or are there schools that we can work with when I do have to declare a Code Blue?" he said. "There's a lot of things I think we have to put together here, so it's key that we meet with Justin (Behrens) and some leadership."
Behrens said the staff is already making progress in finding new beds for their guests.
He said many of the guests are "transient," and will likely move on to another city. But for the ones with local ties, organizations like Volunteers of America have already reached out to offer whatever help they can.
"When it comes to the nonprofit realm, we stick together and and we really work together to make this happen," Behrens said. "This could happen to any nonprofit out there. Unfortunately, Keystone mission was one of the ones that it happened to."
