Editor’s Note: For the past 13 weeks, four days a week, the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal in Atlantic City have hosted an evening winter shelter at the Parish of Saint Monica’s Quaremba Hall for the city’s homeless. On Monday, March 7, the beginning of the final week of the season for the shelter, staff writer Peter G. Sánchez observed the work of the Sisters and their volunteers, and the gratitude of the guests.
5 p.m.
I arrive at the hall, which shares a parking lot with the Franciscan Sisters’ convent on the campus of Saint Michael’s Church in the Ducktown section of Atlantic City. Already lined up along Mississippi Avenue are a dozen men and women. As there are only 32 beds at the shelter each night from Monday to Thursday, the Sisters have implemented a 5 p.m. ticket system, first come first serve when the doors open at 6 p.m.
Sister Ann Kateri, CFR, Local Servant of the convent, appears from the front door, and the men and women, in jackets and hats to fight off the evening’s blustery wind, and carrying all they have on their backs and shoulders, soon walk across the parking lot to the front doors of Quaremba Hall to show their blue tickets.
Sister Ann Kateri greets everyone with a smile, knowing all by name. The shelter began in Winter 2020 as a Code Blue Shelter for evenings when temperatures dropped below freezing. It became more urgently needed due to the COVID pandemic, as existing local homeless shelters’ social distancing guidelines prevented them from taking as many guests as before.
This winter’s four-day-a-week program has “allowed for a consistency for us, our volunteers and the homeless, who know we’ll be open,” she says. The regular hours also mean more time for the Sisters and their guests to get to know one another. Sister Ann Kateri notes that relationships have deepened, and the homeless feel more strongly the support and love of the volunteers.
5:45 p.m.
In the hall kitchen, volunteers Kim Rayer from Notre Dame de la Mer, Wildwood, and Ma’rie Hodges of Holy Trinity Parish, Margate, are preparing the night’s meal of Ukrainian Chicken Stew with cornbread and juice and cookies for dessert.
Kim says she gets “such peace when I come here,” referring to the two Mondays a month she volunteers.
In the main hall, 32 beds lined in rows, fully made up with pillows, sheets and blankets (courtesy of the afternoon’s work of the Missionaries of Saint Michael, women currently discerning a vocation), are ready for guests.
So is Charlie Curley of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Absecon, who has been coming twice a week for the past two winters. “We treat these guests with the dignity and respect they deserve, and give them one-on-care,” he says.
Beside him is Lee Greenberg. A Jewish man from Philadelphia, Greenberg’s faith and knowledge of the importance of service has brought him to this Catholic ministry.
Sister Joseph Van Munster, CFR, walks around the hall, making sure volunteers are at their stations – intake, temperature screening, contraband check, bed and food services – before the coming rush.
“This ministry supports people, is present to them, providing a warm meal and bed,” as Sisters and volunteers check in on them morning and night, she knows, adding that the deep bonds formed allow the Sisters to encourage and support the homeless on their journey. She is also pleased to report that the program has given the guests the steady ground to find new comfortable homes and gainful employment.
6 p.m.
Sister Ann Kateri opens the doors, and the guests are welcomed in, greeted first with a smile by Carmen Diaz, who takes their names.
“I want to give back a little bit,” says Diaz of Saint Mary of Mount Carmel Parish, Hammonton, who’s been volunteering since December.
After check-in, guests put their larger belongings such as backpacks and bags into a personal plastic bin for safe keeping overnight. Smaller items such as phones, chargers and toiletries are placed in a smaller plastic bag, which can stay with the guests during their stay. Curley, with Jessica Elliott, a Missionary of Saint Michael, checks each guest for banned shelter items, such as drugs, weapons and alcohol.
After guests pick their beds and desk chairs, they make their way to the kitchen, with Rayer and Hodges happily filling trays with the evening’s dinner.
6:45 p.m.
With the 29 guests in for the night, fed and enjoying their warm beds, volunteers pivot from their particular stations to one-on-one encounters. Sister Philomena Folse, CFR, kneels beside a guest and listens intently to her story and provides spiritual support.
Nearby, Curley helps patch up the head wounds of a man who was attacked on the Atlantic City streets a few hours earlier.
7 p.m.
Reluctant to share their backgrounds, but eager to show their gratitude for the Sisters, guests speak to me of their experiences at Quaremba Hall.
“The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal are the greatest thing to ever happen in Atlantic City,” says Teresa Burns, who has been finding refuge here the past two weeks. “What they’ve done is incredible.”
Lawrence Gaines has been coming longer, for three months, and finds the open door “warming”
“The Sisters bend over backward to see that we eat proper, we sleep proper, we wash up, put on fresh clothes,” he says. The religious and their ministry, he believes, are the best healers for the homeless souls of Atlantic City. “This [shelter] is the best medicine for people who need help, who need somebody to talk to. If there were 10 places like this in Atlantic City, there wouldn’t be anybody on the street.”
Gaines also was appreciative of the extra items given to him as part of the Sisters’ supply program. “I only asked for a shirt and black sweatpants, but they gave me two shirts and the sweatpants, along with soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste,” he says happily.
Three days a week, Tuesdays through Thursdays, there is an evening recitation of the Rosary next door in Saint Michael Church. “The Rosary brings me a peace I’ve never felt before,” guest Brian Flanagan says solemnly. “This is the most humble, loving place, and the safest place I’ve ever been to.”
7:50 p.m.
Rayer and Hodges finish their evenings by cleaning dishes and sweeping the kitchen floor, while Elliott prepares for the next morning by making individual breakfast bags to be given out at the guests’ 7 a.m. departure. The rested will leave with orange juice, granola bars, crackers, cookies and hand warmers.
“This is a perfect opportunity to go outside the self, and have heartwarming, eye-opening encounters,” says Rayer, while praising the Sisters for “making things run smoothly.” A resident of the Villas, she calls the 45 minute-drive to Atlantic City twice a month “well worth it.”
8 p.m.
The evening’s volunteers prepare to depart, while the three members of the overnight crew begin their shift for the next 11 hours. Most guests are in their beds with Benedictine chants playing from a nearby CD player, the prominent voices in the room encouraging all to a peaceful rest.
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