Open Door Mission CEO Spent 24 Hours on a West Main Street Bench for World Homeless Day
The Short Version
- Open Door Mission CEO Robert Williams spent 24 hours on a bench at 80 W. Main Street on the eve of World Homeless Day — part of a national rescue mission initiative called 'Conversations on a Bench.'
- Rochester and Monroe County counted 1,200 people experiencing visible homelessness last year, the highest number on record, with numbers rising every year since 2021.
- Williams brought 19 years of sobriety after a 25-year addiction to this event — he names addiction and mental illness, not just housing costs, as the primary drivers of homelessness here.
- Currently running 50 beds at 150% capacity, Open Door Mission is spending $5 million to add 80 more beds at the same address, with construction expected to begin in 2027.
- The bench, the building, and the expansion plan are all at 80 W. Main Street — Williams is explicit that no single institution, city, or county can solve Rochester's homelessness problem alone.
On Thursday, Robert Williams took a bench to the sidewalk in front of 80 W. Main Street and sat down. He stayed through the night and into Friday afternoon — 24 hours, on West Main Street, talking to anyone who stopped. The event was timed to World Homeless Day Rochester 2026, observed on October 10, and livestreamed for anyone who couldn't be there in person.
Conversations on a Bench at 80 W. Main Street
Conversations on a Bench at 80 W. Main Street
Williams, the CEO of Open Door Mission, sat at 80 W. Main St. near Plymouth Avenue from 3 p.m. Thursday to 3 p.m. Friday. The format — "Conversations on a Bench" — is a national initiative organized by rescue missions across the country, built around re-humanizing homelessness rather than turning it into a statistic or a policy talking point.
The location is not incidental. Open Door Mission operates out of that building. People experiencing homelessness already gather along that corridor. Williams wasn't staging this in front of City Hall. He sat in front of his own organization, on a block that already lives with the issue daily.
A CEO Who Has Walked That Path
Williams has been sober for 19 years. Before that, he spent 25 years in active addiction. He told 13WHAM: "I walked that path, and I sit here now as the CEO of the Open Door Mission because there was something that was called hope."
He identifies addiction and mental illness as the two primary drivers of homelessness in Rochester — not as a policy framing, but from direct experience. That's what shaped the event's intent. This wasn't a press conference. It was a CEO who knows that corridor from the other direction, sitting on a bench in public, available.
Rochester's Homelessness Numbers on World Homeless Day
Rochester's Homelessness Numbers on World Homeless Day
A February 2026 Rochester City Council report found that 1,200 people experienced visible homelessness in Rochester and Monroe County last year — the highest number recorded. That count has risen every year since 2021.
City Council President Miguel Meléndez described the conditions plainly in February: "Homeless Rochesterians have to take shelter in encampments which are unsafe, unregulated and detrimental to neighborhood quality of life."
Open Door Mission currently operates approximately 50 shelter beds, frequently exceeding capacity at 150% occupancy. Fifty beds against 1,200 people is the math Williams is working with.
What Open Door Mission Is Building Next
What Open Door Mission Is Building Next
The bench is in front of a building that's about to change. Open Door Mission is undertaking a $5 million renovation at 80 W. Main St. to add 80 shelter beds. Construction is expected to begin in 2027.
Williams is clear on what that will and won't solve. "The Open Door Mission certainly can't do it alone," he said in May. "The city can't do it alone. The county can't do it alone."
The 80 new beds are planned for the same building where Williams spent Thursday night on a bench. Construction begins in 2027.
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