Milwaukee's only homeless shelter open during the day has launched a $2 million capital campaign to expand services and benefit those who frequent it.

Repairers of the Breach, located just north of campus at 1335 W. Vliet St., held the first of two October open houses Thursday to kick off the campaign, which has raised $455,000 to date.,”Milwaukee's only homeless shelter open during the day has launched a $2 million capital campaign to expand services and benefit those who frequent it.

Repairers of the Breach, located just north of campus at 1335 W. Vliet St., held the first of two October open houses Thursday to kick off the campaign, which has raised $455,000 to date.

Sources of funding have primarily been private organizations, but organizers of Thursday's open house are hoping the public will also contribute.

Marquette students have volunteered their time at the shelter and helped to lobby City Hall in November 2004 when the shelter received a special-use permit to expand and renovate its three-story building, said MacCanon Brown, Repairers of the Breach executive director.

"Marquette students played a very significant role in our getting that approval," she said. "Marquette students are really with us in solidarity. There's been a real tradition of that."

Marquette service learning has been involved with the shelter for at least a decade, said Kim Jensen-Bohat, service learning assistant administrator. Marquette students help with the shelter's literacy education, violence reduction and clothes sorting programs, among others. Repairers of the Breach has also been included as a site in Midnight Run.

"Some students just basically fall in love with Repairers of the Breach because we're community and we're family," Brown said. "We adopt the Marquette students in our family."

Kathleen Cullen, service learning student coordinator, said homeless people from Repairers of the Breach have spoken in Janice Staral's social welfare and justice classes. Cullen, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she took Staral's introductory course.

Shortly after the permit was granted in 2004 and with two more floors of space to utilize, the shelter began the private phase of its capital campaign.

Private organizations have helped to fund programs at Repairers of the Breach. The Harley Davidson Foundation has funded the GED program for the past three years, said Mary Anne Martiny, the foundation's manager.

"One of our major goals as a company is education and jobs, and that's what these people need," she said.

The Forest County Potawatomi Community Foundation is another organization that has helped to fund the shelter.

"We're very much into fighting poverty," said Raejean Kanter, executive director of the organization's Impact Fund. "We have a foundation that gives $3 million – $2 million of it goes to fight poverty in the inner city. (Repairers of the Breach) is such a perfect fit for us."

Kanter and Martiny serve as co-chairs of the capital campaign and oversee 21 others that solicit funds from other organizations.

The shelter serves between 120 and 150 people per day and provides them with meals, showers and clean clothes. The homeless at Repairers of the Breach participate in the several programs, including literacy, substance abuse, Bible study and prayer. The two-floor expansion of the shelter will provide space for further programs. The improvements would include lockers, a communications room, a health care center and a floor reserved specifically for women.

"They want to make this building a one-stop shop," said Katie Hamm, a volunteer who serves on the Repairers of the Breach media and marketing committee.

Those present at Thursday's open house had only accolades for the shelter.

"I came in here a broken woman. I was broke down," said Pam Moorer, a former homeless person who now volunteers at the shelter. "If it wasn't for (the shelter), I wouldn't be sitting here today."

Several who were present said Repairers of the Breach is a family that supports each other.

"Many of us come in with low self-esteem," said Jerome McCoy, a volunteer who helps conduct spiritual and anger management programs at the shelter. "We recognize that everybody has gifts and talents. We try to bring those gifts and talents out of each one of us . and make us realize that we can do something. We can make a difference."

Brown, who has overseen Repairers of the Breach since 1992, said the shelter maintains the goal of its now deceased co-founder Tony Lee.

"He envisioned a place where homeless people would govern and where homeless people reached out to each other," she said.

Since its creation in 1989, Repairers of the Breach has chosen not to receive any governmental funding so it can be "a place that belongs to the homeless, that's run by the homeless," Brown said.

She said Repairers of the Breach is a model for the country because it enables homeless people to work together in one community.

"We believe we have a key because we have a community that provides positive change," Brown said. "In this environment, homeless people help each other to make positive changes in their lives."

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