A Man With a Mission: To Help the Homeless

James VarnHagen prays daily that the homeless men his organization serves will find their way. At chapel services and at staff and board meetings, the executive director of the New York City Rescue Mission also prays for adequate staffing, funding for new mattresses, and volunteers for the food pantry.Tonight in the basement dining room, 200 homeless men and women will join in prayer in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. before digging into a fried-chicken dinner prepared by a longtime volunteer at the mission, Gloria Williams.“We believe that prayer is important in all that we do,” Mr. VarnHagen, 68, said.For 133 years, the mission has provided shelter, meals, and counseling to those in need. It was the first rescue mission in America, founded in 1872 by Jerry McAuley, who found God while serving time at Sing Sing. Today it is one of 300 rescue missions in the country belonging to the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, of which Mr. VarnHagen served as chairman for five years.Because the program content at the mission is religious, government funding accounts for only 2% of its budget. “That’s for food supplies so we can provide 150,000 hot meals annually,” Mr. VarnHagen said. “People do not have to identify with any religious persuasion to receive a meal here,” he added.President Bush’s faith-based initiatives may have raised the profile of groups like the mission, but it hasn’t led to more government funding for it. “Many individuals realize that there is more latitude for faith-based groups to be on an even playing field with secular groups,” Mr. VarnHagen said. “It’s helped the general public to know that what we’re doing is of value to the community.”Mr. VarnHagen speaks in a calming tone with a distinctive Midwestern lilt. Sitting in his wood-paneled office full of Christian-themed handicrafts, he seems like a figure from another time and place. Yet he is at the helm of a humming enterprise in the heart of the city at 90 Lafayette St. – a stone’s throw from the courts and a short walk from the Financial District, where it had its first home, on 316 Water St.Under Mr. VarnHagen’s leadership, the mission has grown substantially. Since he took the helm in 1990, the annual budget has increased to $3.5 million from $200,000, and the staff to 25 from 2 employees.The number of people sheltered each night remains the same, about 100. But the services for the 35 long-term male residents have significantly expanded to include health care, job training, and computer instruction. Long-term residents are selected from the transients who come to stay overnight. They reside at the mission for nine to 12 months and go through a 12-step program that addresses psychological and substance-abuse issues. They also help clean, cook, and staff the reception desk at the mission.“These are people who have had addictions, emotional problems, are simply down on their luck,” Mr. VarnHagen said, “To see them transform their lives is my greatest encouragement.”The staff lets people know there’s a religious component to the program. “But we don’t twist their arm. They have to be cooperative, but religious commitment is not a criteria. The criteria is, ‘Can we help this person,'” he said. A survey of residents this summer showed that 83% preferred the spiritual emphasis in services. The same survey showed that 33% of the men were high school graduates, 17% had some college, and 4% were college graduates. About a quarter are white, 36% black, and 30% Latino.Mr. VarnHagen would like to serve more people by buying a building, perhaps in Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx. He has also considered adding three stories to the mission’s current low slung building. The extra space would be used to provide shelter and long-term recovery programs for women and families, the fastest growing homeless population in the city. Currently, the mission only provides food and clothing to women and children. The quarters are too tight to safely house men and women under the same roof.It’s a relatively small operation. “Even if we doubled the number of beds, to 200, that’s still a small fraction of the 38,000 beds the city provides,” he said. But his group has its place. “I believe that God sends us the people that he wants here,” he said.Mr. VarnHagen has Christianity in his blood – although he only recently learned of a significant family connection to the ministry. He knew he was of German and Dutch descent and that his grandfather settled in Michigan at the turn of the century, where he built gardens and golf courses. At a reunion last spring, he learned that Varn-Hagens worked alongside Martin Luther to bring about the Reformation in the Ruhr, Germany.On his mother’s side, he recently discovered another link to his work: His great-great-grandfather lived on the same block as the mission. It is a fitting coincidence for an organization that takes its history seriously. The lobby contains a photograph of Jerry McAuley. In a cabinet in his office, Mr. VarnHagen keeps the mission’s original seal, made in 1876.His own path to becoming a rescue missionary began when he was in the Air Force. Working on B47s in North Africa, Mr. VarnHagen decided it was important to develop his relationship with God. His was inspired by colleagues, especially Smoky Brown, who had his tattoos of naked women painfully removed to show his commitment to his faith.Soon after, he flew home to marry his high-school sweetheart, Anita. They had never discussed religion, but seemed to have a spiritual connection: “While I was away, she had deepened her commitment to the Lord, and decided she couldn’t marry me if I wasn’t a Christian,” he said.The couple weren’t sure how that commitment would shape their lives. After the Air Force, Mr. VarnHagen returned to Detroit and worked as an engineer for nearly 20 years. He earned a college degree in religious education, started a substance-abuse counseling program at work, and volunteered at the Detroit Rescue Mission.In 1977, the auto industry faltered. He found himself at a crossroads when he was laid off. Working at the mission was a possibility, but he hadn’t yet received an offer. He also worried about taking care of nine children – the oldest was 20, the youngest 3. Meanwhile, he received a job offer in the engineering field for higher pay than his previous job.“So my wife and I prayed about this, that the Lord would give us an answer as to what I would do,” he said, “We prayed one night that God would give us the answer by 9 o’clock the next morning.”At 11 o’clock that night, the director of the mission knocked on his door and offered him a full-time job. He accepted.Later, Mr. VarnHagen earned a graduate degree in intercultural studies at Wheaton College, while working to place chaplains in public institutions in Chicago. While there, the New York City Rescue Mission asked him to apply for the executive director position.“I think the Lord works that way, he opens doors so we can be more confident of what our steps should be,” he said.When Mr. VarnHagen came to the New York mission, he developed a list of eight goals. His first priority was to expand the contributor base. “When I got here, there were 2,400 contributors and they were going to die, and they did,” he said. Today the mission has a database of 130,000 names (thanks to the second item on the list: an improved record management system).Improved public relations and board development followed. Only then did Mr. VarnHagen embark on raising capital funds to maintain the building, originally a cafeteria for machinists.He’s learned to be patient. “It takes time to bring things into being,” he said, “You just can’t snap your fingers and all of the sudden have everything you want.”Cultivating a relationship with the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church resulted in a $50,000 donation for a new roof.Number eight on the list is to turn contributors into investors. He’s working on it.He has two goals for the first half of 2005.The first is to find larger quarters for the administrative offices, preferably closer to the mission (the current office is five blocks away).The second is to figure out how to expand while maintaining a presence at 90 Lafayette.“We’re so tied to the area here – we have strong relationships with the courts, there are people with needs right here,” Mr. VarnHagen said.

A Man With a Mission: To Help the Homeless

More from the New York Sun

Airports Promote Food Banks, Gift Cards for Unpaid TSA Workers as Spring Break Begins

Michigan Synagogue Attacker Is Naturalized Citizen Whose Hezbollah-Linked Relatives Died in Lebanon Airstrike

Religious Man Sues Los Angeles County for Not Letting Him Work From Home in June To Avoid ‘Pride’ Flag, Celebrations

More from the New York Sun

Airports Promote Food Banks, Gift Cards for Unpaid TSA Workers as Spring Break Begins

Michigan Synagogue Attacker Is Naturalized Citizen Whose Hezbollah-Linked Relatives Died in Lebanon Airstrike

Religious Man Sues Los Angeles County for Not Letting Him Work From Home in June To Avoid ‘Pride’ Flag, Celebrations

Lew Lehrman: Prophet of Honest Money

Jack Schlossberg’s Congressional Hopes Imperiled as Bloomberg Endorses Nadler Protégé, Micah Lasher

Blue States, With Taxes on High Earners, Commit Political and Economic Suicide

Frustrated Fani Willis Denounces GOP ‘Clown Show’ Even as She Suffers Setback in Effort To Avoid Paying Trump’s Legal Bills

Democrats’ Calls To Tax the Rich Overlook Urgent Need To Tame Reckless Government Overspending