History

Central Union Mission is the oldest, private social service agency in the District of Columbia. For 140 years, the Mission has been a leader in serving people experiencing homelessness and poverty in our nation’s capital, which, regrettably, has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country. Compelled by our Christian faith and Biblical calling to “love they neighbor,” the Mission was initially founded with the goal of serving homeless veterans of the Civil War. Since 1884, we have continuously operated an emergency shelter for men, but over time, our work has grown substantially. Today, we operate four facilities that provide a world-class platform to achieve long-term, sustainable and systemic change in the lives of the people we serve, while daily meeting the immediate needs of the chronically homeless and those at-risk of homelessness and poverty.