Mustard Seed Shelter Addition Doubles Capacity

Saginaw’s Mustard Seed Women’s shelter is celebrating the completion of a new 3,500Sqft. expansion.

The new addition comes with 10 updated rooms for individual women, opening up larger rooms at the shelter for women with children.

Mustard Seed Director Amy Bartels-Roe spoke at this week’s ribbon cutting ceremony and said the addition is a great way to celebrate the shelter program’s 25th anniversary, while accommodating more women in need.

Services Coordinator Tina Jones adds that while COVID-19 didn’t have much impact the actual building of the add-on, it did impact both life at the shelter and interaction with construction workers.

Residents were tested frequently and moved from room to room with social distancing in mind as workers needed access to different areas of the shelter.

They were also taken to work, the grocery store, and other needed areas by shelter associates (even if they had their own vehicle) as a way of activity tracing to prevent coming into contact with potential carriers of the virus.

Newer rooms at the shelter will be reserved for individual women coming in, with the existing areas set for women with children.

With the addition done, focus will now shift to renovating the already-existing housing.

For more information on the Mustard Seed Shelter’s mission to help homeless women and children, you can visit their website or social media.