The Gospel Center Rescue Mission in the heart of Stockton, located in the historic Little Manila District, houses 357 people experiencing homelessness. Soon, they'll be able to house around 467.

The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved $1.5 million of funding toward the completion of the Gospel Center Rescue Mission's New Life Program Multi-Purpose Center. There's a building on the property that's almost complete that used to house 17 beds. With the new funding, the rescue mission will be able to add 110 more beds.

"It's just going to do wonders for Stockton," said Kyle Porter, who's now a director at the Gospel Center Rescue Mission after going through the program. "Stockton needs more places like this. There's a lot of negativity surrounding Stockton. If there can just be one positive thing coming out of Stockton, this place would be it."

The money is from interest accrued through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which brings San Joaquin County's total investment in the project to $3.5 million.

"It's not just about putting up a building; it is about investing in people," county Supervisor Paul Canepa said. "We've seen firsthand how these programs change lives, turning years on the street into a graduation day. When people stabilize their lives, the community saves money on healthcare, law enforcement, and the justice system."

People who've gone through the program are helping build it. Among the additional 110 beds, 27 are dedicated to medical recuperative care. There will be recovery services, vocational training, offering shelter, job readiness programs, and a place for people to get back on their feet.

"Lives. That's what it's going to do, it's going to be changing lives, and that's what's exciting to me," said David Midura, Gospel Center Rescue Mission CEO.

For people experiencing homelessness, this means more space for more of them to rest their heads at night, with private showers, laundry and social rooms, with an elevator for people needing wheelchairs.

"It's beautiful and it's kind of neat to see people in the community here and they're excited," Midura said. "They're saying, 'I can't wait to move into the new building,' and so that's really cool. We want them to be treated so well."

The Gospel Center Rescue Mission said it wants people who seek their help to know they are loved and are royalty, the "King's kids," so they have purple painted over doorways to remind them they are royalty, speaking life into them. This is what Midura does to people who enter: he tells them they are loved.

"We don't see a homeless person, we see a person…it's (the Gospel) the real deal, that's what changes," Midura said. "That 71-percent success rate is because they believe and come to Jesus Christ."

Midura said that every year, the Gospel Center Rescue Mission averages 64 graduates. So in one year, he said that's $4.4 million saved for San Joaquin citizens, and generations of homelessness broken.

"Uniting families and bringing families back together, restoring them. Last year alone, we brought together 350 children who went back with their parents," Midura said. "That's huge…that's what that ($1.5 million) is about. It's just, we needed the help and we're very thankful and appreciative that they would come together and partner with us to do that."

Porter was homeless, on drugs and in jail before joining the Gospel Center Rescue Mission's program. Now, he's the director of emergency lodging.

"Immediately, as soon as I walked in the door, I felt the love," Porter said. "I felt the love that I haven't felt in a long time. It made me feel like I could be somebody and take my life somewhere. And, I did exactly that."

Porter told me that at this time last year, they were about to shut down their emergency lodge because of a lack of funding.

"We're going to be able to house a lot more men for the program," he said. "We're going to be able to expand our drug and alcohol program."

Along with those programs, there is a women's shelter and a program where those experiencing homelessness can be gainfully employed with Church Street Coffee.

Midura said the building is 89% complete.