New St. Vincent de Paul facility will house homeless seniors
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The Society of St. Vincent de Paul will more than double the capacity of its transitional housing program for Arizona seniors experiencing homelessness. The organization broke ground Tuesday on a new $20 million facility in south Phoenix.
Adults over 55 have become the largest share of people receiving homeless services in Arizona, according to Arizona’s Department of Economic Security.
“I never thought I’d be in a place of need ever,” said 76-year-old Skip Lake during Tuesday’s ground breaking ceremony. “I used to be the guy who’d come up to the street corner and think to myself, ‘Why are you standing on the corner? You can find a job.’ But I was wrong.”
Lake said he got heavily into debt, struggled with alcohol abuse and was living out of his car a few years ago. He then was able to move into St. Vincent de Paul’s Ozanam Manor, where he said counselors helped him turn his life around and eventually find permanent housing.
“Ozanam Manor gave me my life back,” Lake said.
The original Ozanam Manor building, which opened six years ago, has 60 beds. The new, adjacent facility for homeless seniors, veterans and adults with disabilities will add 100 beds to the program when it opens next year.
“That building will also include a dedicated space for workforce programming to help people build the skills and the confidence to get back to work, and a veterinary clinic to care for the companion animals of our unhoused neighbors,” said St. Vincent de Paul CEO Shannon Clancy.
Large investments from Maricopa County and the city of Phoenix are helping pay for the new facility. Federal funding from the pandemic relief package, the American Rescue Plan Act, has allowed the county and city to make historic investments in homelessness programs over the past two years.
The Maricopa Association of Governments reports homelessness in the region has increased by more than 70% since 2017. But this year, people living in emergency shelters or transitional housing made up the majority of growth in the homeless population, while the number of people on the streets fell slightly.
