When young Dennis Kriz attended Mass in a working-class suburb of Chicago, he knew homeless people slept in the pews the night before. He could smell it.
From the Great Depression until the late 60s, many Catholic churches in the Chicago area, possibly across the country, were accustomed to opening their doors for the night so the homeless could sleep with a roof over their head.
“Everyone did something, and ultimately it was enough,” recalled Fr. Dennis Kriz, O.S.M., pastor of St. Philip Benizi parish in Fullerton. “Unfortunately, when drugs became more prevalent, the churches couldn’t manage anymore, and the system eventually stopped.”
He attended undergraduate school at the University of Illinois and was awarded a teaching assistantship to the University of Southern California, where he ultimately received his Ph.D. in engineering in 1991.
He volunteered with a homeless ministry in south Los Angeles but thought his career would be fixing or building things as an engineer. It wasn’t until he broke up with his girlfriend that he realized he needed to rethink the course of his life.
Praying in front of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego at St. Vincent de Paul Church near U.S.C., God answered his prayer with a call to the priesthood.
“I wanted to finish what I had started at school, but I was impressed with the Servite priests who ran the Catholic Center,” he said. “As soon as I could, I entered the Servite seminary in Berkeley.”
Fast forward to 2016. Father Kriz returned to California to become pastor of St. Philip’s in Fullerton.
“When I arrived, there were three unhoused men who slept on the parish grounds,” said Fr. Kriz. “A parishioner insisted I send them away. When I refused, she left the parish.”
Soon, word got around that Fr. Kriz would not drive the homeless away. The campers grew until by 2018 there were 30 people sleeping on the parish grounds. That’s when Fr. Kriz, the priest and Dennis Kriz, the engineer/problem solver, took on the homeless crisis in his community.
“Fullerton had about 400 people living on the streets and no plan,” he recalled.
At the time, the Armory in Fullerton was the only shelter in North Orange County and could only accommodate 200 people. The rules exacerbated the problem. Without medical triage, sick people slept next to the healthy. Disease spread rapidly. Furthermore, the homeless had to leave the shelter by 6 a.m., with nothing to eat. They landed on the streets with nowhere to go – and often wandered into adjoining neighborhoods….
Fr. Kriz learned that Salt Lake City made huge strides in addressing homelessness. It began with a study that found about 50% of the homeless just need a roof over their head while they sorted out the issues that put them on the streets. Of the remaining half, about 35% percent had addiction issues or mental illness and needed support services. Less than 15% preferred life on the streets.
The problem was that people camping on the parish site could not get services. With the help of homeless advocates, Fr. Kriz learned about the Boise decision that government agencies could not fine or arrest a homeless person if there was nowhere else for them to go. Staying on private church property meant the city could turn a blind eye. So, Fr. Kriz explained the situation and they moved to the other side of the fence forcing the city to help them. Fr. Kriz reached out to other churches in the area who had homeless ministries.
“Churches want to help, but government has to be at the helm to organize everyone and make the process smoother. Government should lead and ask churches to help.”
In December of 2018 Fr. Kriz submitted a community opinion letter to Voice of O.C. titled “244 Homeless People Died This Year in Orange County Waiting on Us.”
His letters have had an impact.
“He’s a perfect example of living your faith,” said Voice of OC Publisher and Editor in Chief Norberto Santana, Jr. “He doesn’t give up and is proof positive that every person can make a difference.”
Fr. Kriz publishes the coroner’s list every month. In that time, 1,649 people have died homeless….
Original story at O.C. Catholic
I would have left his parish too. It’s a safety issue. Especially with little kids. If you want to run a homeless shelter, do that. If you want to be pastor of a parish, then do that. The two don’t mix. Inviting the homeless to stay invites crime, drugs, disease, property destruction, and foul odors.
I expect anyone giving this a “thumbs down” to volunteer as night staff for such an arrangement. May I doubt the takers?
Fr. Kriz is in the wrong field. This unrealistic, bleeding-heart liberal missed his true calling! He should have been a social worker, with a job of helping the homeless– under guidelines and supervision from his employer, who would not allow anything impractical or dangerous to the public. Maybe he should sign up to be a priest with the Missionaries of Charity, of St. Mother Teresa. Those nuns know how to help the destitute, following proper, sensible guidelines, and they preach Christ’s teachings to them, too. This priest apparently has no common sense, no idea of the great dangers he places on his Catholic parishioners and their families. A church is sacred, a place to worship God– and must be respected. In the Great Depression era, homelessness was temporary, until a job was found. The mentally ill were placed in institutions. There was no epidemic of dope addiction and “youth rebellion,” and most people respected God, the churches, and common morality and decency. Many today, no longer respect God, the churches, or morality and decency. The mentally ill and dope addicts, as well as many criminals, are allowed to roam free. I know of several churches in which mentally ill, dope addicts, and criminals have done sudden, horrible things to parishioners– and have also desecrated and damaged parts of the churches where they slept, urinated and defecated anywhere, and brought diseases everywhere. Nobody in their right mind, would allow such foolishness! Would you allow such foolishness– an “in-church sleepover”– with a bunch of wayward teenagers, ravaged with alcohol and drugs? Of course mot! In one terrible case I know of, a few years ago, an elderly Sacristan was brutally attacked in the Sacristy, by a crazed, homeless man, just as he was preparing for an early morning Mass. The crazed, homeless, “regular overnight sleeper,” entered the Sacristy, and violently attacked the poor, elderly Sacristan from behind, with an ax. He was hospitalized with very serious wounds– and was forced to quit his job. He also was brutally hurt psychologically, by that horrible incident.
The overnighters were not at his church. Read more than the headline.
They were not sleeping in the pews.
I would think there’s a huge liability issue in allowing homeless to camp on parish/diocesan property. The homeless are quasi tenants, permitted residence on parish grounds with the permission of the diocese’s legal representative. Should something bad happen, it will be jackpot justice and a huge settlement paid out to the victim(s), who could be among the homeless living there. I suppose then the plaintiff would be homeless no more because he could afford to buy a house with the money obtained in the judgment.
From the Great Depression until the late 60s, many Catholic churches in the Chicago area, possibly across the country, were accustomed to opening their doors for the night so the homeless could sleep with a roof over their head.
Before Vatican II
It was also a time of far lower crime rates, the mentally ill in institutions and more priests and religious around to keep an eye on things. And in that era NOBODY dared mess around in a church. There was no entitlement culture and drugs other than alcohol not an issue. Different world, sadly.
Fr. Kris should write a book on what people can do to alleviate the problem.
Most people want to help but don’t know how.
I don’t believe the statistic that 50% of homeless just need to sort things out before they get back on their feet. I think they are being deceptive in that they are probably including everyone who has been on the street over the course of a year for even just one day to be counted as homeless under that statistic. That skews the numbers dishonestly. Studies in Utah have shown that such people are only on the street for a few days; then they manage to find a place to live. So those people don’t really count as homeless unless you are trying to make homelessness appear not to be largely what it is: the result of drug addiction and mental illness.
If you exclude the questionable 50% of normal homeless people, then in actuality 70% of homeless are drug addicts and the other 30% are socially nonconformist or mentally ill. “Preferring life on the streets” is quite the euphemism for mentally ill.
Where I live, when the police encounter homeless people, they call the Christians.
Let’s start with the premise that in a country as rich as the U.S.A. there should be no one homeless. If we start there, we can start to build some safeguards – affordable housing, institutions for those with mental issues, the ability to institutionalize those with severe mental and addiction problems,a prohibition against easy drugs on the streets, shelters to eliminate tents, etc. on the streets, financial support for needed services and agencies to provide those services, and the list goes on. But, from my observation, we have not yet said that homelessness, regardless of the cause, is not acceptable.
Good post, BOB One!
All of that is being done.
With stronger families, there would be no homeless. Democrats have disincentivized the nuclear family and extended family structures that formerly provided support to relatives going through a hard time and prevented them from being left out on the streets. I note that your list of solutions is all government-based. You exclude families from consideration. That’s how Democrats think, and it leads to greater problems.
I’m not a Democrat. Full Stop ! The least expensive two-bedroom apartment I can find in Elk Grove, near Sacramento, is $2000 per month plus utilities and the usual other charges. The average Social Security payment is about $1600 per month. There is a disconnect there. I agree that strong families would be a good thing. Would the average stronger family want someone moving in with them that is addicted or has mental issues? Not for long I suspect.
I have a family member with substances abuse, mental health and personality disorders.
I could not house them.
Especially if you have children, you have to think about the safely of yourself and other family members.
This is one of the differences in the approach of responsible people.
If you have $1600 per month to live on, you should have a rental no more than $500-800 per month.
If the rents in a neighborhood are more than that, you don’t live there.
Where I live they have senior apartments, where the rents are lower, you aren’t dealing with some of the violence and drugs and baby mama drama that are in the general public apartments.
You may have to move to a different area.
California is some of the best places to live and it costs a lot to live there.
If you can’t afford it, then you should not live there.
I do not know about Elk Grove or Sacramento, but the Northeast is also so expensive that the elderly cannot afford housing. They have agencies that supplement housing costs.
I know Catholic Charities in many areas has help.
I see around Sacramento that there are trailer parks for seniors that would be affordable.
There is a webpage Sacramento Self Help Housing which has a page of senior apartments which are much more affordable.
The Sacramento Bee just ran a major article about what it was like to find a place to live using the city’s list of affordable housing. Some places have a five-year waiting list. Senior apartment complexes begin at $1000 per month for one-bedroom plus utilities and other expenses.
Yes, waiting lists are a thing.
Pray to the Lord.
He will provide.
There is something called the JBBrown Fund which might be able to assist.
Also try Catholic Charities.
This may have changed but one of the barriers to homeless people getting jobs was that they do not have an address to put on the application.
Now with online applications-even Walmart, Target, Starbucks, etc-you apply online.
Some of them do have computers and they can go into a coffeeshop with WiFi. Or I think you can use a smart phone.
But their phones get stolen a lot.
Read the article. The priest was nice to one homeless person and then he had 30 homeless people.
His being nice and letting them live there kept them from getting the help that was available.
He had to tell them to leave. They did not have to go far.
I see these TikTok videos where people help the homeless and I think “No don’t give them a tent.” When you give them a tent, you give them a home. Help them get off the streets. They need an income and many homeless people do have an income. They need first and last months rent plus utility deposits if you can find a place to rent. Rents in California are astronomical. They are high everywhere now but not California prices. Homeless people will move to where there are more services. Some of them need medical care and medications.
Marijuana is big with the homeless too
Seniors should have planned better for retirement.