The Buffalo City Mission

Mission Buffalo City Mission exists to meet the spiritual and practical needs of the poor through the demonstration of the love and preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Purpose The purpose of Buffalo City Mission is to proclaim and demonstrate the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ, meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of men, women, and children who are homeless or in need of hope.

History The Buffalo City Mission has grown considerably since its founding about a century ago. It all started in 1917 with the baseball hero-turned-evangelist Billy Sunday, who donated $8,400 to the Buffalo Evangelistic Association to found the organization. Five years later, through the efforts of Rev. and Mrs. Edward Clark, the Association purchased Fenton’s Pekin Cabaret for its base of operations and began providing chapel services and meals for Buffalo’s vulnerable populations. Over the next decades, and in part due to the work of a women’s auxiliary group, the organization expanded its work to include providing clothing and shelter for those in need. In the 1970s and 1980s, new social problems led the Association to open a shelter and a safe house to assist families victimized by fire, violence, and other crises.

In 1984, the Buffalo Evangelistic Association changed its name to the Buffalo City Mission. They also moved into a new and improved facility in downtown Buffalo that housed their administrative offices and the men’s community center. A new capital campaign raising $1.3 million led to construction of the Cornerstone Manor Women and Children’s Shelter, which opened in 1990 to provide emergency shelter, recovery programs, and an on-site school satellite for homeless children. In response to the growing number of homeless people in the early 2000s, the Mission announced another fundraising plan, which raised $15 million and culminated in the construction of a new Cornerstone Manor facility in 2006.

In 2017, the Buffalo City Mission celebrated its 100th anniversary. In late 2020, yet another building project was completed. The Alfiero Family Center of Hope and Promise consists of a community center, complete with medical and mental health services, an emergency shelter and a transitional housing unit with 52 individual rooms, a chapel, educational space, and a computer lab designed to give clients a pathway to a stable and secure future.

One of every seven Western New Yorkers is considered impoverished, according to the data given by the U.S Census Bureau. Every year, there are about 5,500 people who are homeless in Western New York and over half of these people are experiencing homelessness for the first time. The Buffalo metropolitan areas (Erie and Niagara counties) have a worse poverty rate than other areas in the United States with similar population sizes. The Buffalo City Mission has been making an impact in these poor communities in Buffalo and changing people’s lives for the better. Over the last hundred years, the Mission has provided services and meals to the homeless

and, most importantly, preaching and demonstrating God’s message of love to these people in need.

The Buffalo City Mission has made a significant impact on the lives of the region’s at-risk populations. There are countless stories of less fortunate people coming to the Mission to seek refuge from the cold nights or to get a hot meal when they are hungry. Not only does the city mission help feed the homeless, it also helps with related problems such as drug addiction, physical disability, and mental health. Donations by many local companies have increased the Mission’s impact, but it is the volunteers committed to service who ensure its success.

Dig Deeper

Buffalo City Mission. “Mission, Vision, and Values.” www.buffalocitymission.org/mission-visionand-values/.

Buffalo City Mission. “Our History.” www.buffalocitymission.org/history/.