Your Impact

The mission of the Joseph House is to promote social justice and stable family life through direct assistance to the poor, whatever their needs may be.

To show you the impact your support makes, here is a summary of the assistance we provided to advance our mission during 2023.

The Joseph House Crisis Center:

  • 1,685 checks and payments were issued for vital needs, a 21% increase from 2022. We issued checks to stop evictions, pay security deposits on new rentals, pay overdue electric, gas, and water bills (often restoring services that had been cut off), and purchase heating oil and propane. When shelters were full we paid for motel rooms for families in danger of becoming homeless. Our funds were also used to buy prescription medications, medical devices, emergency dental work, and other health care needs. We will always consider any request for assistance as long as the need can be demonstrated.
  • 4,086 bags of groceries were distributed from our Food Pantry. An average of 321 households, representing about 760 individuals, received food each month.
  • 7,767 meals were served in our Soup Kitchen. Many of these were bagged lunches, but in October our preparation teams began returning after the pandemic and hot meals are once again being served.
  • 7,431 sign-ins were recorded at our Hospitality Room for the Homeless. Our services include food, laundry, emergency clothing, toiletries and personal care products, and showers.
  • 175 new winter coats were given to children.
  • 15,900 pounds of food were collected at our Thanksgiving Food Drive, the most ever. (Bernie and Jim Greene have been organizing this food drive for 36 years!)
  • 185 turkeys were given to families at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
  • 611 gift bags for children were given out at Christmas. Each bag had two toys, a book to read (still important in the era of screens), a hat and gloves for winter, an activity or coloring book along with crayons or pencils, a family gift such as a board game, and, as often as possible, a small gift for the parents.
Our services reach people of all ages. Here is a volunteer holding a little child whose mother signed up for our Christmas toy program.
Your support was used to help people like the following:
  • Roger is an eighty-seven-year-old veteran. His home is a rundown trailer that is not well insulated. Roger was out of heating oil when the weather turned cold. He could not afford to get the tank filled. We paid the bill of $350.
  • Monique, 32, was arrested two years ago for a drug offense. She was sentenced to rehab instead of being incarcerated. Monique is faithfully participating in her recovery program and is also working. She needed to have extensive dental work that she could not afford: a root canal and a crown. We made a payment of $225 toward the cost.
  • Ladonna, 60, has a deteriorating spine and cannot work. She is waiting for her disability claim to be approved. In the meantime, she was receiving only $328 in temporary monthly benefits. How can anyone survive on that? Ladonna had a cut-off notice from the water department. We sent in a payment of $350.
  • Andrea is 69 and has many health problems. She was sleeping on a mattress that was so old she would sink in and not be able to get out of bed by herself. We bought a new one for her for $292.
  • Emmitt, 62, is suffering from blood cancer. He was homeless, and a bed in a shelter was giving him short-lived relief from the harshness of the streets. With our contribution of $250 toward the security deposit, Emmitt now has a little cottage in a senior housing development to call his own.
A few of our Food Pantry workers.

Beyond the Crisis Center, we also conduct Good Neighbor and Representative Payee programs. See our Newsletters for April 2023 and May 2023 to read about some of the people we helped.

The Joseph House Workshop

Your support also keeps the Joseph House Workshop in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Workshop provides a safe and healthy environment for up to eight homeless men. The men are given the time and assistance they need to get job training, address personal growth and health issues, and begin steady employment.

Your support enabled the floors and windows to be replaced throughout the Workshop building.

One of the new windows at the Workshop.
Two Workshop residents showing their design for a stained glass project for the new windows.
Just one example of how the Workshop residents take care of the property.

New floors and lighting were also installed at the Joseph House Crisis Center.

New floors in the Crisis Center.

These projects were long overdue.

Thanks to your support, our facilities are in excellent shape!