Inventive to Infinity:
Responses to Homelessness By S. Patricia Wittberg
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s the many articles in Intercom this year have shown, homelessness is a severe, and growing, problem in the United States. From their earliest founding, the Sisters of Charity have ministered to those who lack a secure place to call home, and for the past 50 years they have been joined by Associates with a similar passion. What are some of the ways the Sisters and Associates have responded to homelessness? The first way, of course, has been to prevent homelessness from occurring. A major cause of homelessness is the continuing shortage of affordable housing for persons with low to moderate incomes. To respond to this shortage, Sisters Barbara Busch and Judith Martinez founded Working in Neighborhoods in 1978, for the purpose of constructing or rehabilitating housing that low- and moderateincome residents of the South Cumminsville neighborhood could afford, and for training new homeowners in budgeting and home maintenance skills. In recent years, S. Barbara has been joined by Sisters Whitney Schieltz, Brenda Busch and Annette Muckerheide, and WIN has extended its services to more neighborhoods. Last winter, WIN broke ground on its “50 Net Zero Urban Village” project, which will create 25 new, energy-efficient single-family homes in South Cumminsville, and will also rehab 25 senior citizens’ homes to reduce their energy usage. By the end of 2020, S. Barbara projects that 20 of the 25 senior home rehabs will be completed, and construction of seven new homes will have begun. Another organization in Cincinnati which is actively preventing homelessness is Santa Maria Community Services, founded by Sisters Blandina and Justina Segale more than 100 years ago. Today, Santa Maria continues its founders’ mission by assisting families through its Tenant Education and Stable Families programs. Currently, S. Sandy Howe and Associate Maureen Maxfield serve on the board of Santa Maria, and numerous other Sisters of Charity have volunteered there. In Pueblo, Colorado, S. Nancy Crafton is working to raise money for former migrant farmworkers who cannot afford the newly raised rents on the houses and apartments they currently occupy. Because many of these workers are not documented, they are neither eligible for public housing nor pandemic stimulus money under the CARES Act. Without help, they, too, will become homeless.
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In their ministries at Working In Neighborhoods in Cincinnati, Ohio, (from left) Sisters Barbara Busch, Whitney Schieltz, Brenda Busch and Annette Muckerheide work to provide affordable housing and programs to persons with low to moderate incomes.
Another way the Sisters of Charity help prevent homelessness is by funding other nonprofits that construct affordable housing. Twenty of the 63 nonprofit organizations currently receiving loans from the congregation’s Seton Enablement Fund are using this money to build or rehab affordable housing in states from Texas and New Mexico to Oregon and Massachusetts. The second focus of Sisters and Associates, and by far the largest and most varied one, is to minister to those who are already homeless. Some support or serve in emergency shelters. Bethany House, which was started by Sisters Delia Sizler and Mary Grafe in 1983, now houses between I n t e rc o m
