In Midtown Manhattan, faith communities are joining forces to help New York City’s growing homeless population. According to Coalition for the Homeless, more than 103,000 people sleep in city shelters each night, including over 35,000 children, and thousands more live on the streets or in the subway system.
To respond to this crisis, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, St. Thomas Church and City Relief came together to provide meals and essential support to hundreds of people in need.
“We’re the new guys on the block,” said B.J. Neal, Program Services Director for City Relief, a faith-based, mobile nonprofit organization that provides meals, supplies, and social services to people experiencing homelessness and poverty in the New York City and New Jersey metropolitan area. “It’s important for us to build rapport and get people to trust us so that we can actually provide real services to solve the problems that they’re dealing with.”
City Relief connects people in crisis to stability through housing, income, and health-care assistance. Neal says the need is rising, with a 28 percent increase in outreach numbers this year.
At Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, organizers see this effort as part of their mission to serve the city’s most vulnerable. “It’s not only about giving them food or clothing,” said Colin Nykaza, Director of Outreach at the cathedral. “There’s that personal touch, talking to this human being in front of us.. and with these organizations, they have people in place to help them take those next steps.”
Ruben Nuño of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church added that their volunteers and social workers “spread the love of Christ to our neighbors,” serving over a hundred guests at each outreach.
Through shared faith and cooperation, these ministries are offering more than meals — they’re providing dignity, connection, and hope in a city where too many are still searching for home.