Our Mission

To share our passion for helping the homeless

These people may look down and out but they’re all individuals with their own story

In October 2014, there were an all-time record 59,246 homeless people in New York, including 14,218 homeless families with 25,150 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families comprise nearly four-fifths of the homeless shelter population.

The large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems.

Child homelessness continues to surge: The number of homeless children increased by 8% over the past year, reaching an all-time-high 22,712 children sleeping in homeless shelters in January 2014.

Length of stay rises, again: Average shelter stays for homeless families with children rose by a remarkable two months (60 days), or 16 percent, during the past year. The average shelter stay for homeless families with children is now 14.5 months, the longest ever recorded.

Not just families: The number of homeless single adults sleeping each night in the New York City shelter system rose 5% to 11,342 women and men, another new all-time record.

Record numbers all year long: During FY 2013 more than 111,000 different New Yorkers – including more than 40,000 different children – turned to the homeless shelter system, 5% more than the previous year.

2.5 million children in America
(1 in every 30)
go to sleep without a home of their own

Of the 2,200,000 children living in poverty in California, thirteen out of every one hundred (13%) are homeless

New Orleans Ozanam Inn

ALL the proceeds from the coming album "Shelter" will go to the Ozanam Inn shelter. None will go to us. But we hope especially that because the record is released on the internet that the record will catch peoples ears and draw them to the homeless in New orleans.

You can support the Ozanam Inn today by purchasing the new album, Shelter

Click here to purchase from Amazon

"We, The Society of St. Vincent de Paul at Ozanam Inn, commit ourselves to the ideals as stated by our patron, St. Vincent de Paul, when he said: "You will find that charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the bowl of soup and the basket of bread. But, you must keep your gentleness and your smile. It is not enough to give bread and soup, this the rich can do. You are the servant of the poor. They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting as you will see; but, the uglier and dirtier they are, the more unjust and bitter, the more you must give them of your love. It is because of your love, only your love, that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them."

Each day Ozanam Inn provides the following services at no charge:

Prepare and serves 600 to 650 hot meals a day.
Dispense clothing to men, women and children.
Sleeps 96 homeless men each night and an additional 32 men on freeze night, furnishing each with toiletries, a warm shower, fresh pajamas, linens and a clean bed.
In-house counseling, case management, and rehabilitation programs for various dependency problems.

Chapel services with spiritual counseling, and additional counseling.
Assist with state ID’s and birth certificates.
Basic medical diagnosis, treatment, services, screening and treatment, prescription assistance and TB testing by medical professionals and students from LSU and Tulane and the Daughters of Charity mobile medical van.
Tulane University School of Medicine Weekend Clinic
Essential dental examination and care in partnership with LSU Dental School.
Dispense vouchers to women and children to other shelters.

Receive and disperse mail.
Haircuts to clients.
Assistance to develop social, work, and leadership habits and skills to help with transition from life on the street to independent living.
Services in career development, resumes and job search.
Assistance in locating and acquiring housing and resources for independent living.
Basic legal and notary services, including the "Homeless Court" recently developed in cooperation with local federal, state and local judges and attorneys.

UNITY research shows that, on any given night last year, 2,337 people were literally homeless, sleeping on the street, in a shelter, or in a place unfit for human habitation.

But, over the entire year, at least eight times as many people – 16,701 including 1,824 children –received help from the UNITY collaborative and its 60 member agencies because they were homeless or at risk of homelessness.

10 percent of poverty-stricken people fall into homelessness every year.

Unity Executive Director Marth Kegel said, "We have experienced a more significant decrease in homelessness than any other city, and we're really proud of that because it represents the whole city working together, specifically on the issue of homelessness and housing the homeless, but also with bringing the city back."

Information Sources

http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/basic-facts-about-homelessness-new-york-city/
http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/pdf/report_cards/long/ca_long.pdf