The society will host adults ages 50 and over on one floor of the campus in north St. Louis
On a rainy Friday morning, members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul gathered on the seventh floor of Peter & Paul Community Services’ Community Campus, waiting for their marching orders.
Furniture, mattresses, toiletries and cleaning supplies were arriving to the campus, with another truckload on its way, director of Vincentian services Julie Komanetsky said.
“What we need to do is make these rooms feel like home for the people that are going to be staying here,” Komanetsky told the group.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society was preparing to host displaced tornado residents on one floor of the Peter & Paul campus in north St. Louis. Parish volunteers and St. Louis Council employees spent the morning of June 6 readying 17 rooms to host older adults, age 50 or above, who are in need of temporary housing. The first residents of the floor were expected to move in the week of June 9.
“What we’re going to be doing is working with people to move them forward to their permanent home. But we know for many, we don’t have enough affordable housing, so we know it’s going to take time,” Komanetsky said. “We expect people will be with us for months — not days and not years.”
The private rooms each have a private bathroom; residents will get three hot meals a day as well as access to Peter & Paul Community Services’ other resources, including a health clinic, Hopewell Center mental health services, full-time occupational therapists and more. Vincentian volunteers will also be present at the campus on a regular basis to serve as a resource, talk with residents and pray with them.
St. Vincent de Paul conferences all over the archdiocese are used to helping neighbors who are in need in a wide range of ways, and they will continue to do so as people recover from the tornadoes and beyond, Council executive director John Foppe said.
The disaster-related need after the May 16 tornado is the most Foppe has seen in his 13 years with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, he said. The St. Vincent de Paul St. Louis Council has a disaster committee and designated disaster fund, which is being used to host the Peter & Paul Community Services floor as well as supplement the funds of parish conferences as needs arise.
“Disasters are just another face of need,” he said. “What we do every day is stabilize people’s lives, people who are in need and could ultimately become homeless. (This is) a special way that Vincentians can come together in an immediate way.”
Volunteers were busy in rooms up and down the hallway, cleaning, hauling furniture and distributing personal care items. The rooms were being furnished with beds, new mattresses, dressers and armchairs and stocked with personal toiletries, towels and cleaning supplies. The furniture was sourced from St. Vincent de Paul thrift stores and conference donations; some was also donated by Washington University in St. Louis.
“Many people might see volunteers cleaning rooms, but what I see is the body of Christ coming together to help heal the body of Christ,” Foppe said. “In a city that’s often defined by the Delmar divide, I think this shows that the city also can be defined by divine life. And that’s what we’re doing — these folks are incarnating the divine heart.”
In the floor’s community room, Carol Murphy was doing inventory on donated supplies alongside other volunteers. The Council office had sent out a signup link with a list of needed items, and it was all filled in about 12 hours.
“Everyone is eager to help — and it can’t happen fast enough,” said Murphy, a member of the St. Vincent de Paul conference at St. Catherine Laboure in Sappington.
Across the hall, Joe Sohm, treasurer of the St. Vincent de Paul conference at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, was wiping down windows. The cathedral basilica parish is on the edge of where the tornado caused damage in the Central West End, he said. While not very many people they assist were displaced from their homes, their conference did get several extra calls for people in need of food after power outages caused what they had to spoil.
A big part of the society’s mission involves home visits to neighbors in need to spend time with them and understand their situation, he said. “It’s also to respect them — they’re not just a number, or someone coming by,” he said. “So when people’s homes are destroyed, to help give them a home for the meantime is really key to the mission.”
Barb Giese, a Vincentian volunteer from St. Justin Martyr in Sunset Hills, grabbed some yellow rubber gloves and got to work cleaning bathrooms. While this project fell outside of her usual St. Vincent de Paul activities, it was a chance to be open to wherever the needs of neighbors are, she said.
“I thought this was a great way to help some neighbors and give them a reprieve from their cars, or wherever they’ve been trying to stay,” she said. “I was also excited that it was dealing with the older folks…they can get kind of overwhelmed, and this will be a safe space.”
In another room, Annie Zetlmeisl and her son Peter, 17, scrubbed down windowsills and surfaces with Lysol wipes. Annie is part of the St. Vincent de Paul conference at Mary Queen of Peace Parish, and Peter, a rising senior at Chaminade College Preparatory School, has started to learn more about the society and participate when he can.
“We had just seen so many things on the news, so many people going through hardships, all the devastation from the tornado, and we just wanted to do something to get out there and help in any way we could — more than just giving money,” she said. “We wanted to get out there with our hands.”
Peter & Paul Community Services
In addition to the floor hosted by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Peter & Paul Community Services has designated three other floors in its eight-story building for people displaced by the tornado, CEO Anthony D’Agostino said.
About 50-60 residents have already moved in on two floors, he said; rooms on the final floor are still being prepared but are expected to host about 30 more. Residents include seniors from Alumnus Gardens, a senior living facility in the Ville neighborhood, and Horizon Housing, a low-income housing provider.
Peter & Paul Community Services also partnered with the Red Cross to open an emergency shelter for between 40 and 50 people at their southside facility in the Benton Park neighborhood.
“We’re thrilled to partner with all these organizations that are coming out and helping people in need, because it’s just increasing,” D’Agostino said. “The need is getting greater as the list gets longer.”
How to help
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul of St. Louis stabilizes families with shelter, food, clothes, beds and other basic necessities for living. To donate, visit www.svdpstl.org/donate.
