By Tricia Hempel

ST. LAWRENCE DEANERY — A lot has changed since 1972, when Father Bruce Ritter, OFM Conv., began Covenant House in an attempt to shelter the numerous homeless youths he encountered on the streets of New York City.

On the positive side, Covenant House has grown from its initial shelter in the Times Square section of Manhattan to become the largest privately funded youth services agency in the Americas, serving more than one million young persons at the rate of 61,000 a year at 21 sites in the United States, Canada, Central America and Mexico.
But on the less positive side, statistics show that nearly 40 percent of all homeless persons in the United States are under the age of 18. Additionally, says Sister Tricia Cruise, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati who has served as Covenant House’s president and CEO since 2004, the profile of the young people has also changed.

"Mental illness is massive with our kids," she says somberly. And while the agency’s goal has always been to reunite youths with their families when possible, that is becoming a less frequent scenario. "We do successfully reunite kids with their families," she said. "Not often, but we do it. The first hope is always that we can reunite them, but most will not go home. There is a reason why they left home."

PHOTO COURTESY COLLEGE OF MOUNT ST. JOSEPH

Sister Tricia Cruise receives an honorary degree at commencement ceremonies at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati this month.

"The foster care system in this country is broken," Sister Tricia added. "A large percentage of the kids who come to us are ‘graduates’ of the foster care system."

Sister Tricia was in Cincinnati this month for several reasons: to thank area donors and to explain more about the mission of Covenant House, as well as to receive a honorary degree from the College of Mount St. Joseph, where she once taught and ministered, and to deliver the address at their commencement ceremonies.

"As an advocate for the poor, the disenfranchised and the homeless, Sister of Charity Patricia Cruise walks the talk of her religious congregation and gives voice to those who cannot speak for themselves," the citation for her honorary degree noted.

Sister Tricia entered the Sisters of Charity in 1981. While in formation she became campus minister at the Mount and taught in the Religious and Pastoral Studies Department. She completed her master’s degree in theological studies at Berkeley then returned to teach and work for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Following that, she became executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, where she spent nine years working with children and families in three schools and 16 Catholic parishes on the reservation. Then the call came from Covenant House.

Ironically, while numerous letters with her words and photo are sent to donors and potential donors each year, at least a few did not believe that "Sister Tricia" is a real person. One recent visitor to the New York headquarters, upon seeing her office, told staffers, "I thought she was like Betty Crocker — someone you made up!"

On her visit to Cincinnati, she thanked the Sisters of Charity Ministry Foundation, whose recent gift to Covenant House will allow the agency to double to 70,000 the network organizations they tap into to help youngsters.

While Cincinnati does not have its own Covenant House, the agency served more than 20,000 youths from Ohio last year and another 14,000 from Kentucky. When a young person in trouble calls the agency’s hotline seeking help, the call goes to a main number in New York, but from there an operator pulls up where the caller is from and looks for agencies and contacts in the local area to immediately send out to assist the youngster.

Covenant House works with more than 800 agencies in Ohio and 417 in Kentucky to help local youth, and funds sent from donors in Ohio and Kentucky go to the hotline in order to best help local persons.

Sister Tricia admits she has received more than 300 letters since January from persons throughout the world begging her to open a Covenant House in their city.

But she believes that non-profits need to look at the larger picture and not be in competition with each other for funding. "We need to shift our thinking from sites and buildings to start working more with other non-profits," she explained. "It takes $130 million a year to keep us going."

And the needs only seem to be growing. In Toronto, the staff at Covenant House represents 21 different languages that can be spoken, a need that comes from the increasing number of immigrants into the city. In Vancouver, virtually 100 percent of the kids who arrive at their doors are addicted to crack.

"We have open intake; we never turn a kid away unless they have a gun, but we can probably handle that, too," Sister Tricia says. In New York, the residence has 500 beds, but mats are still required to handle the overflow that they cope with every night.

The age of the Covenant House resident is usually between 17-21, but in Latin America, Sister Tricia noted, much younger kids are literally climbing over walls to find shelter with the agency. "They’re usually around 10 or 11, street kids scrounging around for something to eat in the garbage dumps."

The agency’s role is to meet the immediate need of safe housing, food, counseling, medical attention, etc., for incoming youth and then help them make a plan when those needs have been met. Job training, education, further counseling; every plan is unique. Some residents are kept past the age of 21 if they so desire in order to insure that they are not left without the tools to keep them out of "the system."
"The hope is that by the time they leave here, most will be self-sufficient," Sister Tricia said.

Alumni of Covenant House are among its loyal supporters. One recent donor from Pennsylvania wanted to remain anonymous, but as he gave his $500,000 gift he stated that he had been a "Covenant House kid" 30 years ago.

Cash donations are not the only way that people can help their mission, Sister Tricia explained. One church group from Vermont has provided Thanksgiving dinner for New York’s Covenant House for many years, bringing, cooking and serving the food and spending several days with the residents.

The financial ways — planned giving, scholarship funding, securities, providing jobs to their youth, etc., are vital, but "if you are going to be in a city where we have a house, you can also come for a few weeks and volunteer with us," she said.

As Sister Tricia told Mount St. Joseph graduates this month, "I can honestly say I have learned more about hope, courage and unconditional love from those who have little — than I ever could have imagined. I have learned that God’s will requires a focus that is broad and bold ... that sees the larger world and has a vision for what it can become. For when we can see the physical needs of those most in need — and the challenge to seek justice and peace for them — then we can understand why God is calling for you and me.

"It’s a call to not just serve but to grow, by keeping yourself open to what you never knew before ... even when it seems so difficult," she said.

For more information on Covenant House, visit www.covenanthouse.org.