Florida Catholic | St. Vincent De Paul Society Office Inundated With Needy, Desperate

St. Vincent de Paul Society inundated with needy

More than 50 percent increase in demand for help as economy hits everyone hard.

BOB REDDY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC VENICE BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 08.02.08

NAPLES | An all-too-common sight in the parking lot of the Naples district council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is families who have every possession in their vehicle.

These families are coming to the council offices in the hope that the caseworkers there can offer them some sort of help to get by. There seems to be no end in sight for the needy who are seeking rental assistance, utility help and food.

Each day the caseworkers hear stories from people who are in desperate need for help that will get them through the next month, the next week or even the next day.

“The need is greater today than it has ever been,” said Carolyn Henry, executive director of the Naples council. “We are on the front lines of what people are reading in the newspapers every day.”

This may seem odd considering the council sits in some of the wealthiest areas of the country, but Henry said that the economic hard times are hitting everyone equally hard.

It is often difficult for her to get people to realize that there is growing demand in an area with a reputation of extreme affluence.

“People from all walks of life can run into financial trouble without warning,” she said. “We are a community of high-priced homes, but we are also a community of severe poverty or people who are right on the edge of poverty. We are here to try to keep people from falling into the abyss. All kinds of people are unemployed or underemployed. We want to get them on their feet and helped so they won’t need to come back again.”

The number of people needing financial help, food or other support is up more than 50 percent this year alone, with up to 50 clients coming through the lobby each day.

The people often need help because they are behind on their utilities or rent, or need a bag of groceries to get by.

The center has caseworkers from St. Ann, St. Agnes, St. Peter the Apostle and St. Katharine Drexel parishes. Three other parish conferences, St. William, San Marco and St. John the Evangelist, have caseworkers who work out of their own parish office. The assistance provided to each person is paid directly from a fund set up by a parish conference, private and public donations, the society’s two thrift stores and fundraising events. The council receives no federal, state or local government money.

The people seeking help are interviewed by volunteer caseworkers to determine whether they qualify for assistance. Families helped are usually given food, clothing, furniture, household items, prescriptions and rental or utility bill assistance. Payments are arranged directly with utility companies and landlords. Typically, each client is limited to receive help on rent and utilities once a year, and once a month for food.

“It is hard to say no, but because we are helping so many people at once we can only be a help up, not a crutch,” Henry said.

St. Vincent de Paul collaborates with other agencies to provide help, including Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Venice Inc., Collier County, the Salvation Army and St. Matthew’s House, in an attempt to serve those in need more efficiently and to the greatest extent possible.

Each client who comes in receives a grocery bag full of food for a family of four for two or three days.

Henry said that while everyone who comes in is in need, most should have come for help earlier.

“No one should ever be ashamed,” she said. “It is important for people to get help earlier rather than wait. Often it will be too late. If we are helping when you are about to be evicted, it is probably getting late.”

In addition to the support program, the council also runs two thrift stores to help fund programs such as Meals-on-Wheels.

As a Catholic lay organization, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which celebrates its 175th anniversary this year, relies on more than 470 volunteers who work as caseworkers, Meals-on-Wheels drivers, and thrift store and food pantry helpers.

The daily distribution of 220 meals to the homebound is another key element of what the council does in the community, said Meals-on-Wheels coordinator Carol Harris. The program delivers more than 75,000 meals a year.

Food is donated from food drives at parishes, schools, the post office and Boy Scouts, as well as from local grocery stores and farms, Harris said.

Volunteers organize the donated food and put it in containers, trying to include as much fresh food as possible, to prepare for distribution by the volunteer drivers. The drivers then take the food to the homebound.

One of the most rewarding aspects for the drivers is their ability to be a source of contact with people who have no one else, Harris said.

Even though gas prices have risen dramatically in the past few years the number of volunteer drivers has not decreased and is actually going up to about 200.

“People have not stopped coming to help,” she said. “This is job people love. They know they can make a difference.”

For more information about the programs offered by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Naples district council, please call 239-775-1667 or visit the Web site at www.stvincentdepaulonline.org.

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