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The Van continues helping homeless by expanding to larger facility

The team will be moving to 61st Street and you’ll be able to drop off donations at the new location in about a month.

With frigid temperatures, The Van is working hard to keep people with no shelter warm, but they’ve needed a larger space to house coats, socks and food.

“We just closed on, about two weeks ago,” founder Aaron Reddin said.

The organization has driven food, clothing and hygiene products from its current warehouse to people in need since about 2012.

“Each team has a specific area of the metro and so they get out, they try to meet people’s immediate needs as quickly as we can,” Reddin said.

But, renting a space has become a burden. The Van will be rolling across town from north to south Little Rock.

“It’s worked very well for us but as we grow and as we’ve increased our services it’s kind of started to hold us back a little bit,” Reddin said.

They want to invest more in their efforts, and owning a facility was the answer.

“We want to be able to add a walk-in cooler, walk-in freezer, things that we can write grants for and easily obtain,” Reddin said.

The team will be moving to 61st Street and you’ll be able to drop off donations at the new location in about a month. This new space consists of three buildings which will serve as storage areas and a shop for their vehicles.

“Being able to load the van inside, that’s going to be helpful instead of doing it in the rain, or snow, or ice, or what have you,” Reddin said.

Donations are the driving force behind funding The Van’s new facility.

“We kicked off fundraising on December the 3rd and in less than three months we were able to raise almost 70 thousand dollars that went towards the down payment,” Reddin said.

With a new place to call home, they’re excited to see what the future holds.

“It’s very important that we make sure that everyone in our community is warm, safe, has something decent to eat,” Reddin said.

The Van will be announcing their big move on their social media pages.

They welcome anyone who would like to give a helping hand.

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