From Pilot to Permanent: The New Grace Space
We are excited to share that the Grace Space now has a permanent, year-round site. This milestone marks an important chapter for a program that was built to meet an urgent community need and has grown through the dedication of partners, supporters, and neighbors who believe that everyone deserves a safe space to go. The Grace Space re-opened on Tuesday, February 17th at 64 Pendleton Street in the City of Cortland.
The Rural Health Institute of New York (RHI) purchased 64 Pendleton in early fall 2025 and began renovations as soon as possible. Neither the purchase nor renovations would have been possible without the significant financial, material, and labor donations of many community partners.
The Grace Space exists to provide a welcoming daytime space for individuals experiencing homelessness or housing instability; we prioritize rooting the space in dignity, respect, and human connection. Beyond meeting basic needs, the Grace Space offers a point of stability during the day and serves as a bridge to services, support, and community resources. It is a space where people can rest, feel safe, and take the next steps towards stability at their own pace.
Having a permanent location allows the Grace Space to offer consistency and continuity for both guests and staff. It strengthens our ability to build trust, deepen partnerships, and grow the program in thoughtful ways: expanding services, responding to emerging needs, and continuing to show for our community day after day.
What the Pilot Taught Us
The Grace Space began as a pilot project, made possible by the generous availability of space at the Grace and Holy Spirit Church and the partnership of many other community organizations. Catholic Charities and CAPCO in particular consistently stepped up to support Grace Space staff, guests, and planning. They not only helped establish an intentional culture in the space but also helped with logistics and staffing, supplementing the capacity of Grace Space staff.
These early efforts provided a crucial proof of concept: when a safe, welcoming daytime space is available, people show up and meaningful connections happen. We are deeply grateful to all who donated time and resources to the Grace Space during this phase, helping to lay the foundation for what it has become.
Through the pilot, we learned a great deal about the impact it could have, the gaps that still existed, and the limitations the Grace Space was facing while operating in a temporary shared location. The generous donation of the space at the Grace and Holy Spirit Church allowed for the Grace Space to launch quickly to meet an immediate need, but it was never intended to serve as a long-term or dedicated solution. Because the space was used for other purposes outside of Grace Space hours, there were natural constraints on scheduling, customization, and the ability to expand programming or on-site services.
At the same time, participants and partners shared how valuable it was to have a reliable daytime space during the winter months. These experiences helped clarify what was missing: a stable, year-round, dedicated location that could better support continuity, deepen service connections, and allow the Grace Space to grow in response to community needs.
Preparing for Permanent
We began looking for spaces we could rent and community organizations we could partner with. Ideally, a new site for the Grace Space would:
Be near other service providers and near transit routes
Be at least ADA compliant
Have open interior space with good visibility
Have at least one bathroom, and ideally showers and laundry hook-ups
Our struggle to find a location that had the right balance of these qualities eventually led us to consider purchasing a building of our own. Owning a building that was a good but not perfect fit would mean we could redesign it to meet our needs. Owning would also allow us more control over building policy and access, as well as the outdoor space around it.
The building on Pendleton met many of our requirements. It is within walking distance of services in the downtown area around Main Street, the County Office Building (including DSS and a bus stop), the Salvation Army, and the County Mental Health Department’s new building. There is a large front room with clear eyelines across it, and there were infrastructural elements like plumbing for a shower and laundry.
RHI’s Executive Director, Matt Whitman, worked with the Business Development Corporation and Industrial Development Agency (BDC/IDA), pitching a permanent home for the Grace Space as a use of their community investment funds. They approved a loan and conditional grant, allowing RHI to purchase the building.
This site did require some renovations to meet our criteria. Some of those renovations were about adjusting the space to meet our operational needs: we added and restructured bathrooms and we added ramps. Some of them were about making sure the building would be a reliable space long-term: we replaced the roof and the heating/cooling system, and we repaired damage and improved water drainage. We started renovations as soon as we could after getting the building, starting with the more major changes, like re-framing the bathrooms and making a service window.
Many parts of the renovation were supported by community contributions, including labor, materials, dump hauling and fees, and financial contributions. We’ll be sharing a full list of donors on our website soon to highlight the community involvement that made this possible. We paid for the remaining renovations with the funds raised during and after the pilot.
Front Room: This is the main area where guests will spend time. We added walls for the bathrooms and showers, added a service window, replaced the floor and lighting in the front room.
Hallway: This hallway connects the front room with the staff offices, kitchen, laundry machines, and a conference room for use by harm reduction staff, external service providers and/or support group meetings. We added a ramp for greater accessibility and the temporary storage lockers for guests’ belongings.
Service Provider Conference Room: This private room can be booked by community partners to do outreach in the Grace Space, giving them a private place to meet with guests to do intakes, referrals, or provide other services.
Kitchen and Laundry: This kitchen space allows staff to store and reheat food provided for guests, and we have two sets of laundry machines that guests can sign up to use.
Building Exterior: In addition to the structural renovations to the exterior, we installed a ramp for greater accessibility. We plan to replace this temporary ramp with a permanent one during the summer.
Made Possible by Community
The opening of a year-round permanent Grace Space makes it possible for us to expand and improve on our work. With a dedicated location, we can offer consistency, stability, and a stronger sense of belonging to all who walk through our doors. It allows staff and partners to deepen relationships, strengthen connections to services, and thoughtfully expand programming over time, all while remaining oriented to the needs and voices of our guests.
This milestone is also a reminder that the Grace Space is able to exist because of the generosity of our community. From the early days of the pilot to the many people involved in the renovation of the new space, the Grace Space has been shaped and helped along by all those who showed up, through donations of time, resources, labor, and expertise. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to making the Grace Space a reality.
The Grace Space’s work continues and ongoing community support is essential as our services grow and evolve. Whether through advocacy, donations, or partnership, there are many ways to be part of sustaining this space and the values that it represents. Community members can help by donating or organizing collection drives for specific items that support daily operations and meet our guests’ most immediate needs. To get an idea of the kinds of items you can provide in support of our work, a current list of needed items is available as an Amazon wishlist: https://a.co/05GNhIb5
We extend our sincere thanks to the many donors who helped to create a place rooted in dignity, safety, and connection
