River City Rescue Mission executive director Earnie Hall looked at the photo of a brick house hanging in his office.

“That’s the first building,” said the former resident. “It sat where our chow hall is now. It had two bedrooms and one bathroom. We had 30 men living there. We had to go to the bathroom in shifts.”

River City opened in 1991 as a branch of the Gateway Rescue Mission in Jackson, River City Board of Directors Chairman Gene Allen said, adding that in 1992 a group of men in Vicksburg bought the building and assumed operation of the mission from Gateway.

In the 20 years since, River City has been an oasis for many men who would be on the street.

“We are a Christian rehabilitation center,” said Hall, who has been director for three years. “We serve as a refuge for homeless men, men out of institutions and men out of jail who have nowhere else to go.”

Besides helping its residents, Hall said, the mission has outreach programs to help families in need, offering assistance with food, utility bills and sometimes rent.

Its programs, Hall and Allen said, have given the mission a reputation that extends well out of Vicksburg and Warren County.

“We are well-known over the entire country,” Allen said. “We have men coming to us from all over. It’s word of mouth. Men hear about us from other men. We rarely have someone come in just from off the street. They know that they will be treated fairly as long as they do what we ask them to do.”

“Things around here never stop,” Hall said. “It’s 24/7. We get all kinds of calls overnight. Single men come to us looking for help. We’ve had people drop grandpa at the door because there’s no other place for him. The fire department tells us about people who have been burned out of their homes and need a place to stay.”

He said River City’s reputation and its success has created a problem — more men want to stay at the mission than it can accommodate. And it’s looking to expand.

Hall said the mission’s dormitory, which has holds 44 men, is full, with a waiting list of 12 to 14 men wanting to get in. He said the mission is planning to build a second dorm on its property at 3705 Washington St. to accommodate 12 more men. Until then, he said, “they’ll stay under the (Mississippi) bridge or in places where they’re not wanted. They have no place else to go.”

River City’s property now includes three buildings, a two-story building with the dormitory on the second floor and a thrift store, which helps fund the mission, on the first. There is also a cafeteria and a storage building.

The Vicksburg Board of Zoning Appeals on June 5 approved the mission’s request for two parking variances, clearing the way for the expansion.

Allen said plans are being drawn for the new building.

“All we need is to find the funding,” he said.

Some of that funding, Hall hopes, will come from community donations.

“We trust in God, not the government,” he said. “I believe that the Lord will touch people in the community to help us.”

Hall said River City’s mission is to help men get their lives back together.

“We try to offer Christian, Bible-based counseling, anger management classes, co-dependency classes, GED pre-testing and life-skill classes,” he said.

Residents also are expected to attend chapel twice a day and work either in the thrift store or the warehouse sorting the donations that come for the store.

Hall said the mission’s co-dependency program uses the Bible to help men regain their self-esteem and self-worth.

“Many of these men who come here have been beaten down all their lives,” he said. “We help them learn that they can bring themselves back up.”

Some of the lessons include Hall’s personal experience.

“I was a resident here in 1992,” he said. “I stayed 11½ months and left. It was the biggest mistake of my life and took me 10 years to realize it.”

The life-skills program teaches the skills to get back into society, apply for a job, find one and keep it. Besides providing revenue for the mission, River City’s thrift store serves as a classroom for the men.

“It teaches them to deal with different personalities,” he said. “We may get a customer who comes in upset, or maybe two co-workers don’t get along. They learn to handle those situations.”

Percy Valentine, the store’s manager, was not a mission resident, but has benefited from River City “by hanging around.”

“I’m an alcoholic,” he said. “The Lord helped me. I had a friend who was here, and I just hung around. For a long time, it was work, come here, go home. I lost my job, so I hung around here. The Lord provided an opportunity and I was here. This is doing a good thing, helping these men.”

Hall said Valentine also counsels the younger men. “A lot more gets done in one-on-one discussions than in the groups,” he said.

One of those young men is 20-year-old Caderricious Gales, who’s been at River City for three months.

“My probation officer gave me a choice, prison or here,” he said. He said the program is helping him learn to accept his responsibilities as a man and realize that he needs to turn his life around.

Justin Nichols, a resident for 1½ years, works in the thrift store.

“It was a two-year journey to get here,” he said, adding he came to Vicksburg from Iowa, where he had been living with his grandparents.

“I was divorced and working two jobs and lost them when the economy went bad,” he said. “My grandfather had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and I moved in with my grandparents to help care for him. He died, and my grandmother had a stroke. She had bought me a new car and was helping me find a job, but when she had the stroke, she couldn’t do any more.”

Nichols said he got in his car and headed south, ending up in Vicksburg where his car broke down.

“I was sleeping in my car at a Kangaroo, when an employee saw me and called the police,” he said. “Before I came here, I was lost. I was praying to God for help, but I was asking him to let me win the lottery, get rich quick. He led me to this mission. I feel better now. Better than I ever did.”

River City’s program lasts 4 months, followed by what is called a 2-month graduate period where men begin looking for a job and saving money to find a home of their own. Sometimes, Hall said, the men will take longer to reach the point where they’re ready to leave.

“We allow them time to get ready,” he said.

Scott Crane, who has been at River City for 16 months, is moving toward his graduation. A graphic designer and photographer, Crane, a recovering alcoholic, said he was working in Natchez when he relapsed after 11 years.

“The 12 steps didn’t cut it,” he said. “This (River City’s program) works. The secret is I had to look at my faith differently.”

Crane is an assistant to Hall. He designed and maintains the mission’s new website.

“He’s a keeper,” Hall’s wife, Cecile, said.

Crane said he plans to get a second degree in a medical field, possibly nursing.

Hall said another resident is about ready to leave.

Daniel Howell, a former technician for Hewlett-Packard, now operates a computer repair service from the thrift store and expects to soon open his own shop in Vicksburg.

He said he came to the mission suffering from depression. “The joy of finding the Lord has made me stronger,” he said. He had been at River City, off and on, for a total of eight years.

Walking through the dormitory, Hall went to the landing on the second floor and looked out across River City’s property.

“We’ll build the new dorm over by that paved area,” he said, pointing to a spot between the dining building and the warehouse. But even as soon as the new dorm is built, we’ll have a waiting list of 12 more. Eventually, we will outgrow this property.”