Video: Homeless Shelter Gets Last-minute Reprieve

BY Derrick Q. Lewis
NABJ Monitor

The New Orleans Mission was close to shutting down before getting a last-minute
save from the federal government.

The Mission, the largest private service provider for the homeless in the city, is now armed with money, and a new director who says he’s in a unique direction to lead them.

Despite being on the job for only two weeks, Executive Director David Bottner said he knows he’s in the right place “because God told him so.”

“He said wait,” Bottner said. “So I waited about six months. And then the Lord just opened this
opportunity to me and I’m walking in it now.”

The New Orleans Mission serves nearly 200 people a day, but almost closed its doors because of a lack of funding.

The Mission serves food and offers shelter, counseling and spiritual guidance to help
heal broken men, a goal that hits home for Bottner.

“Cocaine was a big part of my life, alcohol, but there wasn’t much that I wouldn’t try. Ecstasy was something that I dabbled with,” he said.

He said God turned his life around. Nowadays, he is determined to help others.

“It helps me to have a responsibility, it helps me to stay focus and have stability,” he said.