A Brief History About The Mission
The Eureka Rescue Mission was established in 1967 by David H. Eitzen in what was then known as the Bay Hotel, located at 110 2nd Street in Eureka, California. (The Mission is still at this location.) When the Mission first opened, only the first floor of the then four-story building was usable due to code restrictions. The Mission had 15 available beds by the end of 1967. The lot and building were purchased for $12,000.
It started with one man, one building and fifteen beds. Nearly six decades later, the Mission still stands on that same corner of 2nd Street, and the doors are still open. What began as fifteen beds has grown into a Men’s Shelter, a Women and Children’s Shelter, year-long discipleship programs for men and women, and a Thrift Store that helps fund it all. The faces have changed, but the calling has not: to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet people right where they are, with a hot meal, a safe bed, a warm shower, and the hope that no life is too broken to be rebuilt.
“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me.”
Matthew 25:35–36
How We Serve
Our purpose is to provide food, shelter, clothing and showers in order to have an opportunity to meet the spiritual need and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Helping the Homeless
Every evening of the year, men, women and children who have nowhere else to go find a hot meal, a safe bed, a shower, clean clothing and a chapel service at the Mission. Breakfast and hot coffee send them out each morning to look for work and housing. No one has to earn a welcome here.
Men’s Shelter
Doors open every day at 5:30pm at 110 2nd Street. Men can sign up for a bed, attend a Spirit-filled chapel service, eat a hot, filling dinner, take a hot shower and exchange their dirty clothing for clean. Each morning they are sent off with breakfast as they work toward jobs and permanent housing.
Women & Children’s Shelter
A sober, structured home where women and their children can heal. Ladies learn to save their money, pay their bills, connect with services, find work and gain the skills to support themselves and their families. Most of all, they hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ every evening in chapel. Many have left for homes of their own.
New Life Discipleship Program
A free, year-long, residential, Christ-centered program for men and women who are ready to change. Members complete about 600 hours of Bible teaching, serve at the Mission and around town, and finish with a year of sobriety. Graduates go on to steady jobs, their own homes and restored families, and some come back to serve on our staff.
Thrift Store
At 1031 Broadway Street, our Thrift Store offers new and gently used clothing, furniture, housewares and more at prices families can afford. Proceeds help support the Men’s Shelter and the Women and Children’s Shelter, and the store gives many of our graduates their first steady job.
Serving Our Community
Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter meals are served to all who come, and holiday food boxes go home with families who could not otherwise afford a holiday meal. Each December, donated toys help make Christmas morning possible for hundreds of local children.
What God Has Done Through Many Hands
We keep careful records, not to boast, but to remember what God has done and to honor the people who made it possible. From 2007 through 2025 alone, together with our community, the Mission has:
Behind every number is a person: a man coming in out of the rain, a mother and her children who had nowhere else to go. And behind every number there is also a giver. These numbers belong to all of us.
Giving Back to Eureka
The Mission works to give back to the community that carries it. Men in our New Life Program have joined the Eureka Police Department’s Community Safety Enhancement Team to clean up litter and campsites around town, and they help vendors set up for the Friday Night Market and the 4th of July in Old Town. Over the years they have painted, landscaped, removed graffiti and helped decorate Old Town for the holidays. Our staff work alongside local agencies, law enforcement and service providers so that people in crisis are connected to the help they need.
Many of our program members were once camping on those same streets. There is dignity in giving back, and many of the people we serve find joy in finally being on the giving side.
A Team That Serves Together
You do not serve two million meals by yourself, and you do not keep a shelter open every night of the year on the strength of one person. The Mission has always been carried by many hands, quietly and together.
Our leadership leads by serving. Our Executive Director, Bryan Hall Sr., first came to the Mission as a man whose life was in complete disarray. He has served here since 2006. After graduating from the New Life Program, he worked in the Thrift Store, then as a house manager and Men’s Shelter Director, before being mentored into leadership. He has now served as Executive Director for 15 years. He would be the first to give the glory to God and the credit to the team.
Our staff are the heartbeat of the Mission. Front desk workers, house managers, cooks, shelter directors and thrift store crews work nights, weekends and holidays, because people in crisis do not keep a schedule. Many of them once walked through our doors as guests or program members, so they know the road because they have walked it.
Our board of directors gives their time freely to provide wisdom, accountability and direction, so the Mission stays true to its calling and remains a faithful steward of every gift.
Our volunteers, churches and donors fill the gaps no budget ever could. They serve holiday meals, sort donations, lead chapel, teach classes, pray and give. Without them there would be no Mission.
“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10
Meet the Board of Directors Meet the Executive Director
Powered by the Generosity of Our Community
The Eureka Rescue Mission is a faith-based, non-profit, non-tax supported ministry. We do not rely on government funding to keep our doors open. Every meal served, every bed made and every light left on through the night is made possible by individual donors, our Thrift Store, local churches, businesses and service organizations, and families who give in memory of a loved one. When we say the Mission belongs to the community, we mean it.