By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

GREAT Commission Ministries’ long-promised Hope City homeless shelter has been delayed until 2026, with founder Bishop Walter Hanchell acknowledging the project has run into “serious problems” but vowing to give the public a full update before the year ends.

He declined to discuss the setbacks during yesterday’s briefing, saying the ministry will hold a separate press conference dedicated solely to the issue.

“It has been delayed,” he said. “But it will become a reality, God willing, in 2026.”

Hope City, announced in 2023, is planned as a two-storey, 100-bed complex with dormitories and an empowerment centre for skills training, job-readiness initiatives, and broader life-skills development. The project has approved plans, costings, and a construction estimate of $3.5m.

Paul Daniel Lewis, chair of GCM’s Resource and Philosophy Committee, said the ministry’s future expansion depends heavily on increased volunteer participation. He tied that need directly to Hope City’s launch and the scale of the organisation’s ongoing outreach.

“We are taking it to another level in 2026 and beyond, simply because there is a need,” he said. “We respond to the need, and we also anticipate the need.”

He pointed to programmes such as “Live to Give” and “Stop and Drop”, along with direct-deposit options, as ways residents and corporate partners can contribute consistently. He added that Hope City remains a central piece of GCM’s long-term strategy to move vulnerable people from survival to stability.

“People can feel equipped and be able to change their lives beyond the feeding programme,” he said.

Bishop Hanchell said the ministry is already running a monthly upskilling initiative called “Power Up”, aimed at helping disenfranchised people regain independence.

“We bring these people right in here and we train them every month,” he said, noting that experts and professionals lead the sessions. “Budgeting, how they can improve their life. We don’t just want to feed them; we want to empower them.”

He said the pressure on GCM’s emergency housing continues to exceed capacity.

“Great Commission Ministries is the only organisation in the country, outside of the government of The Bahamas, that shelters homeless men, women and children,” he said.

When its shelters are full, GCM moves families into hotels to keep them off the streets.

“We find a hotel to make sure those mothers and their children get off the street, get out of living in their vehicles, get them out of these abandoned, derelict buildings, and we get them a room with a roof over their head,” he said.

He added that families living in their vehicles seek help more often than many realise.

“Someone pulls up in a car with all the clothes in the back and the children in the backseat, and that’s home,” he said.

Bishop Hanchell said the surge in demand requires a surge in public support. GCM is seeking at least 200 new volunteers to support its sheltering, feeding, and outreach operations in 2026.