Simplicity of mission to help the homeless attracts more volunteers and donations as it spreads – in Harrisburg Diocese and beyond
Off The Streets (OTS), a non-profit charity founded by Deacon Michael Oles of St. John Neumann Parish in Lancaster, earned international recognition earlier this month at the 143rd annual Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in Washington, D.C.
The grassroots organization was selected from thousands of council projects in 17 countries and fit the Jubilee Year theme of the gathering, which called for Catholics to be “Heralds of Hope.”
The honor was specifically awarded to a local K of C council in Toledo, Ohio, which started an OTS chapter in 2021 as part of its community outreach efforts. It joins a network of 10 chapters of OTS in five states that collectively have helped more than 10,000 individuals, families and single mothers move from living in tents, cars, cemeteries, hotels and shelters into stable housing.
The Diocese of Harrisburg is blessed with four chapters of OTS to help the homeless: Lancaster, Middletown, York and Susquehanna (Columbia). Like the chapter in Toledo, each traces its origin back to Deacon Mike, who started the first chapter in 2009 in Connecticut before he subsequently moved to Lancaster and started a chapter there in 2013.
The simplicity of the OTS mission has been critical to its growth: get homeless persons, or those about to become homeless, “off the streets” and into a room they can call their own through two basic tasks: pay their deposit and furnish their apartment.
That’s it. There is no paid staff – all manpower is from volunteers, with no overhead or office related expense. No government money is accepted – all donations come from individuals, places of worship, or commercial institutions.
While recipients benefit, those who volunteer with OTS also feel gratified. As one explained, “I had the opportunity to help with OTS for the first time this weekend…and it couldn’t have been a more positive experience. After several hours of work, I left with the feelings of warmth and connection, a satisfaction that comes with assisting others who were currently experiencing life difficulties. I can’t wait to help again.”
Deacon Ed Irelan, justice ministry coordinator with Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Toledo and founder of its OTS chapter, said the award represents both a milestone and a call to action.
“I think for us, it’s a way of affirming people’s human dignity, showing that they are important, that all people are important,” Deacon Ed said. “It’s a way that we can live out the messages that we hear in churches every Sunday that tells us to go out and to help the poor and to help people to get off the streets and to affirm their human dignity.”
Almost every dollar collected goes directly toward a security deposit to a landlord of a qualified, homeless person who is able to pay a monthly rent but cannot afford a security deposit. All of the “living needs,” such as beds, furniture, linens, and household items, are donated.
“The community service award from the Knights means everything to us,” Deacon Mike explained, “because we’ve been trying to establish new chapters but we don’t have an advertising budget. We did that purposely as we wanted to ensure all our donations go for security deposits.”
Deacon Mike, 82, today volunteers in an advisory capacity to those leading the 10 chapters or working to initiate a new chapter in their community. That passion for the homeless is matched by his more routine duties serving St. John Neumann Parish within the full range of the permanent diaconate role. He is also a 4th Degree Knight and a Lifetime Honorary member of St. John Neumann Council 12532.
He said the international recognition from the Knights of Columbus is welcome as it gives more visibility to OTS, which is an answer to a prayer. Most of the chapters have been started by his brother deacons and or Knights, and he said they were praying to the Holy Spirit, “How do we reach others, how do we reach more?”
The Lancaster chapter hosts an open volunteer meeting the first Thursday of every month at St. John Neumann Parish for those who want to learn more, or volunteer. At its August meeting, more than 50 of its current volunteers gathered for a summer picnic at the parish’s outdoor pavilion to celebrate a change in leadership; Don Cronauer stepped down after 12 years as co-president, and the new OTS Lancaster Chapter President is Jim Dornes. Their wives, Karen Cronauer and Glenda Dornes, have also been very active as volunteers in the chapter.
“The job of finding an open rental apartment is on the recipient and their case worker,” Don Cronauer explained. “We just provide the deposit and the furniture. We started here with helping one family per month, but it didn’t take long until it was one family per week, and now it’s up to three every week.”
Jim Dornes, the new Lancaster chapter president, is a retired global sales leader in the software industry. He’s excited about the potential of the organization and its mission.
“We’ve never run out of money; our donors have been great, the Matthew 25 Collection, The Extra Give, and this parish have been awesome,” he noted. “Our volunteers are all passionate about what we’re doing…they get up in the morning energized about what we’re doing to help somebody else and help the community.”
The Lancaster chapter alone has 90 volunteers, Dornes said, and requires significant coordination.
“My business experience managing large teams, getting to simplicity of process, making decisions” is helpful in this role, he said. And as the chapter nears a milestone of helping 6,000 individuals off the street, “knowing that it’s about 50% children makes you feel really good when we’re out doing those moves on Saturdays.”
He said there are three factors for success with an OTS chapter: community awareness of the mission, availability of storage space, and “building relationships with social service organizations in the area. We have about 30 we deal with…social workers, schools, hospitals…they know what we do so we can help their clients.”
Deacon Mike has been gratified by the engagement of many students, youth groups, athletic teams and individuals with their parents in the mission.
“When the students see the impoverished in their community so thankful for basic furnishings like beds, dressers, pots, pans, etc., it opens their eyes to what they can do, not just help with a move,” he explained. “As a result, here in Lancaster, students who consider themselves ambassadors for Off The Streets collect and distribute books that are given to children as they move from homelessness to their own apartments.”
When the K of C award to the Ohio council for its OTS chapter was announced, the pastor of its host parish (Father Eric Schild of St. Joseph Parish in Maumee, Ohio) used the occasion as an example of the power of faith in a homily soon after (that OTS chapter now has 300 volunteers).
“I remember when they first came to me four years ago and said, ‘Father, we’re going to need warehouse space, and we’re going to need a truck, and we’ll need to rely on volunteers every week,’” Father Schild recalled. “I thought to myself, these guys had immense and intense faith… that this could happen – and would happen – and God was opening up doors for it to happen…and that’s what we’re talking about when we talk about faith.”
To learn more about OTS, visit the Off the Streets website. There are also two books written by Deacon Mike that explain the OTS mission, both available on Amazon and Kindle: Help the Homeless Off the Streets One Person at a Time, and Finally Home: The Prophetic Witness of Off the Streets. Deacon Mike welcomes questions via email at moles5@comcast.net.
(Volunteer event photo by Patrick Brennan, freelance reporter for The Witness; OTS service photos courtesy of OTS Lancaster.)
By Patrick Brennan, The Catholic Witness
