The Mercy House of the Southern Tier on Mckinley Avenue has taken care of terminally ill patients and provided a comforting environment for them since 2016, and a new expansion will provide 50% more rooms for new residents.

The 2 million dollar project is expanding the hospice center by 2,500 feet, adding 6 new rooms with a private bathroom for each.

This makes the total residents they can care for 16, the max a non-profit organization can carry in a free standing hospice resident.

The expansion is expected to be completed in April of this year, with Linda Cerra, the Executive Director of the Mercy House, believing it will help the mission of the hospice center.

"We have a waitlist, a consistent waitlist here at Mercy House.  And currently we can care for ten terminally ill residents. So this will allow us to care for more terminally ill community members that need our help in their time of need.  Our mission here is to care for our community terminally ill members, and we support them with an extended family, and we take care of all of the care. 24 over seven, so that their family members can be just that. In their final days of family," Cerra said.