Catholic Charities opened St. Joseph’s Veterans Home in April of 2007. Located adjacent to the historic St. Joseph’s Polish Church at 4626 Pennsylvania St, in Denver, the home occupies the former convent building for the parish.
This group home is a transitional housing program for male veterans who have been honorably discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces and have recently experienced homelessness. Most of the residents have medical and mental health disabilities (including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injuries); as well as histories of substance abuse.
It is a sad fact, that all too frequently our society has marginalized the homeless and the disabled – stripping them of self-respect and destroying their hope for a better future. At St. Joseph’s Veterans Home, we are dedicated to providing our residents with a safe and empowering living environment. Here they are able to rebuild their faith in themselves, to improve their living skills, to live in community -- and to regain hope.
During their stay at St. Joseph’s we help them prepare for reintegration into mainstream society. Our education and training program is designed to create a higher level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence. This in turn, allows them to replace self-defeating thinking and unproductive behaviors, with improved problem-solving and emotional management skills.
Each man is an active participant in developing his own personalized success plan. However, all resident success plans share three common goals - to stabilize income; to save money in a housing fund; and to move into permanent housing when they leave St. Joseph’s. In the last two years more than 65% of our residents have moved successfully into permanent housing.
St. Joseph’s is able to accommodate 15 veterans. Thirteen men have their own room and two men share a room. All of the men have access to a shared living room, a recreation room, kitchen and dining room. All of the men share routine household chores and take turns cooking the evening meal. There are weekly education and training sessions, as well as organized recreational activities.
We serve both combat and non-combat veterans spanning from the Korean War to today. Our residents have ranged in age from 21 to 80 years of age. An alarming trend among those we serve is the dramatic increase in homelessness in veterans of the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars. Many of these young men are under the age of 25.
For more information about St. Joseph’s Veterans Home, or how you may help this Catholic Charities ministry serve these men who served our country, contact Richard Bell at 303-292-2591.