A New Home After 43 Years
It started with a heat wave and ended with a flood.
Since buying the Community Campus in April, the Peter & Paul team has been busy with repairs, renovations, and hiring staff. The primary goal: Preparing to move our 60-bed emergency shelter from Soulard to temporary quarters on campus while the permanent shelter space is constructed.
The move in date was set for July 15. That day became the hottest day of the year. Then, the campus air conditioning stopped functioning. So, the move was delayed. The following day, the rain came.
Our staff and men, still in the original basement shelter at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, watched as water began rushing in through the back door and up through the floor drains. We were flooded within 20 minutes. So, we took this as a sign and said, “We are moving right now.”
Thank you to the Sts. Peter & Paul Church in Soulard for housing our shelter for more than four decades!
Everyone was safely moved to the Community Campus within a few hours on July 16. The rain cooled the temperature, and the men slept that night with fans and windows open. Our facilities director Steve North drove through the night for the needed parts to repair the AC unit. By the next evening, our men were comfortably sleeping in their new home.
“Our staff has been incredibly supportive of the guests during this transition. Change is hard on anyone and when you are already in a state of crisis, it’s even more so,” said Shelter Director Teri Dunn, who has been overseeing the shelter since 2019. “Now that we are in the new space, we see so much progress with the overall outlook among the guys.”
The Jugan Shelter, formerly the Soulard Shelter, is on schedule to begin opening more beds in September and reach its final expanded capacity of 100 men by January. The shelter is named after Jeanne Jugan, the founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns who worked on the campus site for more than a century serving those living in need.
“Our vision for the Community Campus goes far beyond shelter.”
Our vision for the Community Campus goes far beyond shelter. As we embark on the construction of the shelter space, we are simultaneously planning the expansion of other PPCS programs and working to build strategic partnerships to provide much needed transitional and supportive housing options. We will serve not just our clients, but other nonprofit agencies and local community members working toward a better tomorrow.
“With more than 4,000 people on the waiting list for subsidized housing through the St. Louis Housing Authority, not to mention the nearly 2,000 people who are homeless and isolated in St. Louis, we know that creating more affordable housing options is the right thing, the humane thing to do,” said PPCS CEO Anthony D’Agostino. “Homelessness and housing insecurity are symptoms of much bigger societal issues. Together, we will prevail helping people on their path to a stable future.”
“Homelessness and housing insecurity are symptoms of much bigger societal issues.”
