History of Homeless Shelters and the Movements Behind Them

Introduction: Simon Communities and the Origins of Shelter Work

Simon Communities in Ireland has been a fundamental support organization for homeless people ever since Anton Wallich-Clifford laid its foundations in the 1960s. As a probation officer in London, Anton was responsible for handling situations involving people who, sleeping rough, were caught for minor infractions of the law. His decision to pursue a different approach ultimately led Simon Communities to develop into a multi-site organization that is now able to provide accommodation and support to many people in Ireland who have lost their homes for various reasons.

Anton set up the first hospitality home for people he had encountered sleeping in doorways and derelict buildings, having previously visited those places to bring food and to hear people's stories. A visit to Ireland prompted a group of volunteers to organize the first soup run in Dublin in 1969, and the foundation of Simon Communities in Ireland was secured. By 1999, thousands of homeless people had been cared for by Simon, and the number continued to grow in the years that followed.

Anton was inspired by the work of social reformers such as Dorothy Day who, along with Peter Maurin, founded the Catholic Worker Movement in the United States; Abbé Pierre, who founded the Emmaus Community in France; and Mario Borelli, who worked with homeless children in Naples. Beyond being united by an urgent desire to help homeless people in practical ways, they all shared a vision to reach out, accept, and befriend those who had been ostracized by society. This paper addresses the history of homeless shelters and the beliefs that ultimately shaped and gave purpose to them.

Homelessness and Its Social Roots

One cannot discuss homeless shelters without first addressing the issue of homelessness itself. A specific moment in time when homelessness began cannot be determined with accuracy, since homeless people are considered to have always been present within communities. It is more a matter of acknowledging their presence and responding to the rapid growth of homelessness — a concern that gained particular prominence in relation to the 1980s. Nevertheless, it is important to examine some of the earlier social and economic conditions that contributed to the spread of homelessness. This is because homeless shelters, as envisioned by the social reformers who established them, were as much ideologically conceived as they were practically built. People like Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin believed that homelessness was the byproduct of a society upon which industrialism and materialism had placed the mark of greed in the decades preceding their work.

The Industrial Revolution, Urbanization, and Early Displacement

By the 1820s, the Industrial Revolution, which had initially emerged in England in the final decades of the eighteenth century, had imposed a number of gradual changes on all walks of life, and there was a general impression in America that enough existed to benefit every living soul. Agricultural improvements led to increased production and abundant food supplies, further substantiated by the emergence of new technologies and more efficient organizational procedures. Nevertheless, historians have come to recognize that "the progress in which we believe has been won at the expense of much injustice and wrong" (Toynbee 30). It has further been acknowledged that "the historical method is supposed to prove that economic changes have been the inevitable outcome of natural laws. It just as often proves them to have been brought about by the self-seeking action of a dominant class" (Toynbee 31). Indeed, this impact would later lead Peter Maurin to embrace voluntary poverty as a personal critique of the consumerist society in which he lived.

The Industrial Revolution caused a massive migration, and more people began moving from rural environments to cities in anticipation of jobs and a better life. In just thirty-five years, Manhattan grew from approximately one hundred thousand to half a million inhabitants, and it soon became obvious that the city was not equipped to shelter so many people, prompting new construction schemes (Riis 7). The tenement house system proved to be a profitable business while providing only the most basic conditions for what was called a home. Space was compressed to maximize land use, while ventilation and sanitation were dismissed altogether, and the poor population who inhabited the tenements was charged exorbitant prices. Historian Martha Lamb concluded that "the city was a general asylum for vagrants" (as quoted in Riis 14), referring mostly to young adults who preferred to roam the streets rather than live in the tenements.

By the end of the century, legislation had been passed requiring owners to ensure relevant repairs and ventilation in tenement houses. Poor people were nevertheless struggling with multiple insufficiencies, and displacement increased once outdoor relief was abolished. Dr. Thomas Norris observed that "many families were obliged to break up, the parents or parent going to the poor-house, and the children to the asylums for care" (as quoted in Blau 13). The abolishment of outdoor relief meant that no medical assistance was granted to people who did not commit themselves to institutions. In the 1980s specifically, when homelessness was for the first time acknowledged as a serious social concern, welfare hotels became the image of institutions that homeless people often dreaded. Because "these hotels were nasty, dangerous places, [so] only women in extraordinarily difficult situations moved into them, and many moved out within a few weeks" (Jencks 104). Unfortunately, as governmental responses focused primarily on the practical side of homelessness, many homeless shelters came to be associated with threatening places to reside, and many people once again preferred the street over the conditions offered by the shelters.

The Catholic Worker Movement and Houses of Hospitality

It was in this context of social concern and under these circumstances of recurring and increasing homelessness that Peter Maurin met Dorothy Day in 1932 and they established the Catholic Worker Movement. Maurin published Easy Essays, a compilation in verse intended not for private reading but to instigate a pacifist revolution in counteracting the negative consequences of the modern industrialist world, of which homeless people were the primary victims. Maurin believed that social workers were essential components of the process of social integration and reintegration. His vision was that "in Houses of Hospitality social workers can acquire that art of human contacts and that social-mindedness or understanding of social forces which will make them critical of the existing environment and the free creative agents of a new environment" (Maurin 75).

In thinking this way, Maurin anticipated what researchers and the government itself would eventually recognize in the 1980s as a serious social problem: homelessness. He advocated that the government "give to the people access to the millions of acres of vacant land held out of use by speculators and the burden on public relief funds would be quickly cut down at least one-half. If the principles behind the policy were fully applied it would altogether abolish unemployment" (Maurin 84). Maurin was, however, well aware of the implications of capitalism and recognized that such decisions would hardly be implemented. While his propositions were rooted in Catholic social thought, the same variables remain applicable today.

With the establishment of the Catholic Worker Movement, Houses of Hospitality sprang up throughout many cities in America. These establishments provided people with food, clothing, shelter, and above all, a sense of union and companionship. The Houses of Hospitality were part of a larger project aimed at combating social injustice. Dorothy Day described the project's growth simply: "It just came about. It just happened" (as quoted in Troester 3). In the years that followed, over a hundred houses welcomed homeless people in Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, South Bend, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and elsewhere (Troester 4).

It is important to understand that homeless people were also expected to engage with the religious foundations of the movement. Dorothy Day believed it was essential for homeless people to understand that they were expected to participate in the movement's enactment of a new social order. In this way, Dorothy believed the religious and philosophical foundations were necessary for people to understand the world around them and the principles of the Catholic Worker Movement. World War II forced many of the houses to close due to economic difficulties, but from 1945 onward the movement continued its work of promoting pacifism and criticizing social injustice.

Works Cited

Blau, Joel. The Visible Poor: Homelessness in the United States. Oxford University Press, 1992.

Davis, Murphy. "Five Years at 910." A Work of Hospitality: The Open Door Reader 1982–2002. Ed. Peter R. Gathje. The Open Door Community, 2002. pp. 9–12.

Hombs, Mary Ellen. American Homelessness: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO, 2001.

Jencks, Christopher. The Homeless. Harvard University Press, 1995.

Maurin, Peter. Catholic Radicalism: Phrased Essays for the Green Revolution. Catholic Worker Books, 1949.

Riis, Jacob A. How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890.

Toynbee, Arnold. The Industrial Revolution. The Beacon Press, 1956.

Troester, Rosalie Riegle, ed. Voices from the Catholic Worker. Temple University Press, 1993.