WILKES-BARRE — Keystone Mission appeared to formally close its facility at the former Thomas C. Thomas building at 90 E. Union Street on Thursday. The mission’s closure was announced last month and accompanies the impending closure of another Keystone Mission facility in Scranton.
A person who was at the door to the mission Thursday said the building was nearly empty and declined to allow a reporter and photographer to come inside.
Justin Behrens would not confirm a published report that he resigned from his position as executive director and CEO of Keystone Mission and said he would refer a request for comment on the closure to a Keystone board member. The board member did not respond to the request by press time.
The closure prompted a mix of responses from passersby, former residents, and other members of the community.
Shelia Silberberg, a city resident formerly from New York, recalled seeing scores of people who were homeless in tents in Kirby Park. They were evicted from there and had since come to consider the Keystone Mission a home.
“(Now) they’re going to end up in the park again and you’re going to arrest them?” Silberberg said. “This is the safest place they know, this is the safest place that they go to. And now you want to close it down?”
Althea Williams, who was on a walk about a block away, said the pastor of her church, Wesley Chapel, had regularly brought food to the mission.
Althea Williams of Wilkes-Barre speaks on the closing of Keystone Mission in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday, July 10, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“I see the people lined up and it’s looking like that’s their hope, that’s what they need,” Williams said. “For them to close it is really going to hurt a lot of people.”
At nearby Saint Vincent DePaul Food Bank, people had a mix of reactions to the news of the closure as well.
“I think that the mission was a really great place. It helped a lot of people for a very long time,” Michael Rusinko, a city resident, said. “It is sad that it’s closing down but you have to look at the bright side for how long they helped all those people.”
“I’m sure God has some other plan going that I don’t know about yet,” Rusinko added.
Christina Bove was similarly complimentary and praised the care the Keystone staff offered, calling them “wonderful” people who are “giving them everything that they can.”
She did say that she believed stakeholders should work together to ensure residents had more access to storage facilities, workforce-development services and a roadmap to stable housing.
Sheila Silberberg of Wilkes-Barre speaks on the closing of Keystone Mission in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday, July 10, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“They need more stability,” Bove said.
Keystone Mission, an Evangelical nonprofit, opened its first facility, which formally known as the Innovation Center for Homelessness & Poverty and also slated for closure, on West Olive Street in Scranton in 2007. In 2023, Keystone Mission opened a facility of the same name in leased space at the former Thomas C. Thomas Building at 90 E. Union St. in Wilkes-Barre. It provided food and self-improvement programming during the day and was converted into an overnight homeless shelter that could house around 50 people.
Keystone Mission also operates the Transformation Center, a 15-bed shelter for males located within the Sherman Hills Apartment complex that was donated to Keystone in 2008. That facility will remain open.
In a previous interview, Behrens attributed the closures to a “perfect storm,” with salaries and other expenses rising, and grant holders, donors, and volunteers becoming considerably less charitable with their time and money.
Behrens had said that he would work to have shelter residents at the Thomas C. Thomas Building mission placed at other shelters, with family, or “whatever it takes to get them where they need to go.”
Vassily Harrold Raupaus said he had spent time at Keystone Mission. He said was concerned there would be no additional funding to support people who are homeless once the shelter closes – especially since the county had already allocated so many funds to the ill-fated shelter.
Vassily Harrold Raupaus of Wilkes-Barre talks on the closing of Keystone Mission in Wilkes-Barre while outside Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen on Thursday, July 10, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“You could die on these streets, you could die in the woods. They’re just left out there to die is what it’s looking like,” Harrold Raupaus said.
“I truthfully think that it’s a terrible thing, I believe that they should have somewhere to go,” Dennis Myers added. “You know, it’s a horrible thing.”
The closures do come after the city of Wilkes-Barre had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into Keystone Missions’ facility at the former Thomas C. Thomas building, including $214,000 to remodel a warehouse on site into a homeless facility.
While arguing it should have stayed open, Silberberg was critical of the shelter. Given its offerings and closure, Silberberg said she was skeptical of how the Keystone Mission spent the funding routed to it by the city and Luzerne County.
Silberberg is not alone in her skepticism. Luzerne County officials announced June 26 that they planned to sue Keystone Mission to try and recover around $471,000 it had given the mission in funds from the American Rescue Plan – the $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief measure then President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021. Behrens had said Keystone Mission pledged to cooperate with the county in the matter.
Whatever aid may be available, people believed more help was sorely needed.
“You can’t even feel human when you’re homeless,” city resident Sharon Bubb said. “You got to worry about food, washing up, clean clothes, and a safe place to sleep.”
Silberberg said whatever actions public officials take, she urged them and everyone with means to try to empathize with those in need.
“These people need help,” Silberberg said. “They are human. This could happen to any one of us.”
There are a variety of other shelters available in Wilkes-Barre. Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton operates a 20-bed shelter for men and Volunteers of America operates Ruth’s Place, an approximately 30-bed shelter for women, a couple blocks from the former Keystone Mission at Thomas C. Thomas facility.