Young adults, organizations address immediate needs
Krystyne Kelley sat at a bus stop shelter in Downtown St. Louis, seeking refuge on a cold January morning.
She perked up when several young adults approached and offered a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. The men and women gave her a handout with information about area shelters and asked Kelley if she had a plan for getting out of the bitter cold that night.
“I just became homeless a couple days ago, so I’m still getting used to this,” she told them, adding that she’s been riding the MetroLink or staying on the streets.
On most Sundays, the St. Louis Samaritans walk the streets of Downtown searching for those who are unhoused. In addition to providing them with a hot drink, a snack or hand warmers and gloves, the Catholic young adult group seeks to create friendships and a listening presence with men and women experiencing homelessness. Another group of young adults has a regular presence at the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, followed by a donut Sunday, which is open to all.
After a recent winter storm with mix of snow, ice and sleet and sub-freezing temperatures, the St. Louis Samaritans met up Downtown on Jan. 12 to check in on some of their homeless friends and look for others who needed help. Before setting off, the group met and prayed outside Soldiers Memorial Military Museum. Prayer is another important part of the ministry, said Will Morrison, a parishioner at St. Richard in Creve Coeur who helps coordinate the ministry.
“We try and remember to end praying specifically for the homeless that we encounter by name,” he said. “Service is an important part of our faith. So there’s that element that there are people who are really in need, and it’s important to help.”
The St. Louis Samaritans are loosely modeled after Christ in the City, a Catholic ministry that trains young adults to serve the homeless. Jennie Phillips, who attends Incarnate Word Parish in Chesterfield, volunteered with the ministry in Denver in the summer of 2018 and wanted to do something similar when she returned to St. Louis that fall.
“The mission of the whole ministry is to see and encounter and know the other and recognize their dignity and honor and uplift their dignity,” Phillips said. “It’s to never walk past anyone and to make sure they feel known and seen and loved by us. We ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us in the beginning (through prayer), and whatever we encounter with our friends we sit with them in whatever that is.” In addition to their regular outreach to the poor, the group meets for spiritual enrichment, such as lectio divina and an annual retreat.
Organized shelter effort
There are 215 emergency shelter beds in St. Louis. The city funds about a third of those, and the rest are paid for through unstable private funding sources. The St. Louis City Continuum of Care has a $250,000 fundraising campaign to provide additional emergency beds.
Peter &Paul Community Services opened a 60-bed pop-up emergency shelter on Jan. 5 at a building in the Kosciusko neighborhood of St. Louis near the Mississippi riverfront. The temporary shelter, which was funded by a donation from an anonymous donor, closed on Jan. 11.
Peter &Paul worked with the Continuum of Care and the STL Winter Planning team to open the shelter. People were referred there through the St. Louis Winter Outreach, a volunteer effort to help find shelter for those on the streets during the cold winter months when the overnight temperature falls to 25 degrees or below.
“While sustainably housing every unhoused person in St. Louis is our penultimate goal, keeping every person safe and alive during deadly winter weather must be paramount here and now,” CEO Anthony D’Agostino said in a statement. “We are thankful to the experts in the field who’ve helped provide this immediate solution.”
St. Francis Xavier (College) Parish offers temporary overnight shelter as part of the St. Louis Winter Outreach. Xavier Winter Inn is open on Wednesday and Thursday nights during the cold weather. About two dozen volunteers help with everything from setting up to bringing food, serving as greeters, staying overnight with guests and cleaning up the following day.
The Street Outreach team at The Care Service at Sts. Joachim and Ann also has been checking on those who are homeless. Founded out of Sts. Joachim and Ann Parish in St. Charles, The Care Service is an independent nonprofit organization. It is the largest social support agency in the tri-county area including St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren.
The team sees if anyone is in need of supplies, such as blankets, gloves or a warm sleeping bag. They also provide information on warming shelters from the Emergency Weather Response program under the St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren County Continuum of Care. The program is activated when the weather is predicted to be 20 degrees or below overnight. The Street Outreach team works with some 300 unhoused individuals every year and currently is working with about 68 unhoused individuals
“The reality is that a significant number of them don’t want to go, because they’re afraid of losing their stuff” such as tents and other personal items, said Donna Tobin, director of development. The team is doing regular check-ins and taking blankets, coats, gloves and tents — “everything we can do to help them stay alive.”
During the snowstorm, St. Patrick Center transformed its welcome center into a warming center, offering guests hot coffee, snacks, coats, hats, gloves and other winter necessities. The space will remain open as a warming center on weekdays, said Megan Poole, senior director of programs, immediate support. St. Patrick Center is a ministry of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
“Like everyone last week, the snow just kind of hit us … and we transformed the welcome center (which is typically used as a walk-in access point for people seeking services) into our warming center this last week,” she said. “On Monday and Tuesday (after the snowstorm) the warming center had 40 to 50 people who rotated in and out.” St. Patrick also recently announced it will open an overnight shelter as part of the St. Louis Winter Outreach. It will be open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday nights when the temperature drops below 25 degrees.
St. Patrick Center’s outreach team checked in with men and women living on the streets to help them find shelter, connect them with other resources and provide personal supplies to keep them safe during the extreme winter weather. The outreach team, which operates year-round, serves on average about 30-50 people daily, Poole said.
Continuum of Care
The St. Louis Continuum of Care seeks to raise $250,000 to provide additional shelter to the homeless in St. Louis during the extreme winter weather. Continuum of Care leaders have said that there aren’t enough beds available in St. Louis for every person in need of shelter on the coldest nights.
The Continuum of Care is working with local shelters that are in a position to open space or to remain open if they obtain needed funding. To donate, visit www.stlcoc.org/donate.
St. Louis Winter Outreach
St. Louis Winter Outreach is a volunteer effort to help find shelter for those on the streets during the cold winter months when the overnight temperature falls to 25 degrees or below. To volunteer or donate, visit stlwinteroutreach.org. For up-to-date information on volunteer needs, visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/StLouisWinterOutreac.
St. Louis Samaritans
St. Louis Samaritans is a group of Catholic young adults who provide outreach to homeless men and women and offer friendship and a listening presence. To learn more about the group, email Will Morrison at wmorrison96@gmail.com.
