OUR STORY BEGAN WITH ISAIAH 58 AND AN ENTREPRENEURIAL COUPLE FROM DALLAS, TEXAS.

When Richard and Dixie Galloway, the founders of City Relief, read Isaiah 58, they immediately felt challenged by God's concern for the poor and oppressed. They felt they were being called to action, and gained a vision of how they could respond.

They reached out to their friend Alastair Geddes. Alastair was the President of Christ for the Nations Bible Institute on Long Island. Alastair offered them an old school bus and invited Richard and Dixie to come to New York and lead a mobile outreach.

The Galloways visited New York City and bravely decided to take on the challenge of converting a bus to serve people experiencing homelessness. They decided to call their new organization New York City Relief, now known as City Relief.

Within a month, the Galloways left Texas and made the move to New York to follow a dream. There was no funding for the organization and no salary for Richard and Dixie to support their family—just a vision and a few audacious people committed to making it a reality.

The Galloways mobilized a team of volunteers and spent hundreds of hours converting a 1971 GMC bus into a mobile resource center to serve those struggling with homelessness. 

The organization was and continues to be, funded through the generosity of private donors. City Relief began operating in February 1989, using donated office space, and has been faithfully operating ever since.