WILKES-BARRE – Planning for the new, permanent home of Mother Teresa’s Haven, a shelter for homeless men operated by Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton, is now underway.

On Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, agency leaders toured the space above Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen at 39 E. Jackson Street, which will soon be transformed into space that will be available for 20-24 men experiencing homelessness.

Harry Lyons, program director for Mother Teresa’s Haven shelter, center, leads a tour of the second floor of the Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen building in Wilkes-Barre. This space will soon be transformed into the new, permanent location for the emergency shelter serving men experiencing homelessness. (Photos/Eric Deabill)

“I couldn’t be more excited about being here, seeing the space and getting in,” Harry Lyons, program director for Mother Teresa’s Haven, said. “There is a lot of potential here.”

In late April, the Wilkes-Barre zoning hearing board unanimously approved an application for a special exception to establish the shelter above the Kitchen.

“We have a very supportive community,” Joe Mahoney, Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Social Services, explained. “We met with the mayor. We met with the neighbors and met with King’s College. We have got all of this support but we need to make sure we keep talking to them.”

The second floor space that will be converted into the shelter was most recently occupied by a health clinic. The space, which is currently divided into several exam rooms, will need to be reconfigured to accommodate the needs of the shelter.

“We’re excited about opening up the walls so we can get some line of sight. We’re excited about having adequate bathroom space with showers. We don’t currently have showers or laundry facilities but both are a basic need, a dignity issue,” Lyons said.

For the last several years, Mother Teresa’s Haven has been utilizing space in the basement of Saint Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception at 134 S. Washington Street. Prior to that, the shelter had rotated between several churches in Wilkes-Barre.

Catholic Social Services leaders say having a permanent home for the shelter located directly above Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen will also lead to better coordination of services for our brothers and sisters in need.

“We will be a one-stop shop, hopefully making our clients lives just a little bit easier,” Mahoney said. “Having a permanent home is going to be a big relief to our staff and the people we serve.”

“Mike Cianciotta, who runs Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen, has been providing meals for us for several years. I work closely with Mike. The Kitchen is an amazing operation and we want people to be able to say that about us. We want that same feeling about what they do at the Kitchen to apply to us,” Lyons added.

The timeline needed for renovations is still being determined so there is no expected completion date. While hoping to get the work done quickly, Lyons says it can’t be rushed.

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“This is something we’ve been waiting for a long, long time,” he said. “Ten years ago, on my very first day we started talking about it. This has been a goal forever.”

WILKES-BARRE – Mother Teresa’s Haven, a shelter for homeless men operated by Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton, will soon have a new, permanent home.

In late April, the Wilkes-Barre zoning hearing board unanimously approved an application for a special exception to establish a homeless shelter above Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen at 39 E. Jackson Street.

Mother Teresa’s Haven homeless shelter will soon be relocating to the area above Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen in Wilkes-Barre.

“The shelter has been nomadic since its inception in the 1980s. When Catholic Social Services took over more than a decade ago, we started talking about a permanent location,” Harry Lyons, program director for Mother Teresa’s Haven, said. “You need a permanent location so you have the ability to offer these men showers and somewhere they can send their mail.”

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mother Teresa’s Haven had been located in the basement of Saint Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception at 134 S. Washington Street. Prior to that, the shelter had rotated between several churches in Wilkes-Barre.

“We’re grateful to the churches that have supported us all these years but it is time for us to take the next step and provide better services to the men,” Lyons added. “Saint Mary’s was not meant to be a long-term solution. It is a beautiful space and we’re absolutely grateful for it but it was never meant to be a long-term solution.”

In 2022, Mother Teresa’s Haven provided 5,838 individual nights of shelter to men in the community who are experiencing homelessness. That is the highest number of clients served in more than six years.

When the emergency shelter moves into its new location, it will be able to house 20 to 24 men each night. It would be open 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily and would be fully staffed. Security will be provided. Men are able to stay at the shelter a maximum of 30 days and can be granted a 15-day extension if they are taking steps to improve their condition.

“We’re optimistic about the future. The better services we can provide, hopefully the quicker somebody can get through a bout of homelessness. That is the ultimate goal, to get people to self-sufficiency, getting them into a place that is safe, stable and affordable,” Lyons explained.

The new, permanent location will allow Catholic Social Services to offer beds to clients instead of cots and will be beneficial for integrating services in one location.
“It makes sense to have the shelter and Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen right next to each other so people don’t have to wander around downtown as much,” Joe Mahoney, Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Social Services, said during the Wilkes-Barre zoning board meeting. “The more we can provide services in that one location, the better off we’re going to be, the better off our clients are going to be, and the better off the community is going to be.”

Renovation work is expected to begin on the new, permanent location for Mother Teresa’s Haven by late summer or early fall. An expected completion date is not yet known but Catholic Social Services does not anticipate any interruption of services for the men they serve during the transition process.