CVC Members Tour Human Service Agencies

CVC’s March program titled Tour of Poverty examined homelessness and the issues surrounding being homeless Three sites were visited; Mary Hall, the Listening House and the Dorothy Day Center. All three facilities are located in downtown St. Paul.

Mary Hall is an over night shelter that serves 179 people daily with many more on the waiting list to rest there. The shelter has 22 Beds for men, 80 beds for transitional people, and 76 beds for disabled people. Residents can stay up to two years and pay “rent” based on their income. Most of the clients have little education, health issues and some type of chemical dependency.

The Dorothy Day Center is a drop-in shelter founded in 1981. The center offers health care, mental care, veterans administration, mail service, voice mail service, hygiene care, Hispanic outreach, AIDS outreach and meals. Their winter emergency night shelter maintains 130 mats. The center uses an ID system to monitor their clients use of the facility.

Listening House is a drop-in center that provides hospitality and practical assistance to people who are homeless, disadvantaged or lonely. They had 6,000 clients visit in 2002. Most clients have mental illness and/or addictions and have a low education and work skills. The population that visits are people that don’t have a strong support system such as church, family, friends, etc. Listening House supports people to make “the change” and that staff isn’t there to “make the changes” for them. The services they provide include phone, mail, clothing exchange, and laundry.

The need for support is strong. With Government cuts potentially down the road, all three facilities will need to look "outside of the box" for funding opportunities. We, as a community can offer time or financial support to any of these organizations. Contact Diana the CVC representative to get in touch with the appropriate people if you are interested in helping.

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