‘Sheltering the homeless and clothing the naked’ for 60 years

A Vancouver shelter is celebrating nearly 22,000 nights of offering warm, safe places for homeless men to sleep.

The Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel opened its doors for the first time during a sudden winter storm Nov. 14, 1959. At the time, it had 60 beds, and each one was filled with men who had nowhere else to go to flee the cold. It also had a cafeteria, a chapel, and other amenities.

Now 60 years old, the hostel is still located on the third floor of a former industrial building at 150 Robson Street and still doing what it does best.

“All God’s children: that’s what we’re about here,” said guest advocate Keith Ostertag, who has worked at the hostel for more than half of its life and seen it evolve to what it is today.

“When I first started here, I was working front line. All we did was give them a bedroll and sign them in and that was it,” said Ostertag, who got the job at age 19. “Now we’re opening up more with the guests one-to-one and getting to know their needs and goals and work with them.”

As a guest advocate, he learns the unique situations of the shelter’s occupants and helps them set goals, like learning to save money or finding stable housing. Showers, haircuts, and weekly laundry are also on site, as are some small meals and the occasional Mass by a visiting priest.

Shockingly, about half of the hostel’s population is over the age of 55. Ostertag said many seniors who find themselves on the streets are struggling to cope with low pensions, sky-high housing prices, and sometimes addictions to alcohol, drugs, or (most often for seniors) gambling.

The hostel’s roots go back to 1957, when the Archdiocese of Vancouver purchased the old warehouse on the corner of Robson and Cambie Streets. Various archdiocesan offices, including The B.C. Catholic, opened on the first and second floors, while then-Archbishop Martin Johnson called for plans to open a shelter for homeless men aged 18-65 on the third floor.

The committee on that project was disbanded when Franciscan brothers from Minneapolis agreed to move to Vancouver and take over operation of the shelter. They were going to call it St. Francis Hostel.

Not long after the brothers arrived in September 1959, though, they had to abandon the project and return home due to a lack of vocations.

News of a fierce arctic wind set to hit Vancouver that November had the archdiocese scrambling to fling open the hostel’s doors. Within three days, Mike Whelan from the St. Vincent de Paul Salvage Bureau and others turned a nearly empty third floor of a warehouse into a furnished shelter with eight staff and 60 beds. The snow hit on Friday, Nov. 13; St. Francis Hostel was open by Saturday.

The Catholic community also responded to the call with donations of food and funds so the men would have hot coffee, porridge, and sandwiches to eat during their stays at St. Francis Hostel.

The name was changed to Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel, but director Scott Small said in its 60 years it has never lost its purpose of serving some of Vancouver’s most needy, no matter what their background or religion, in the spirit of St. Francis.

“We now have in Rome, for the first time in history, a Pope Francis,” said Small. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go back to ‘St. Francis’ Place’ in who we are as a ministry in our desires in serving the poor?”

Small said when the hostel opened it was on the leading edge of innovative ways to serve the homeless. Now, the building is nearly a century old, operating at maximum capacity with 125 beds, and in need of new washrooms, office spaces, and private rooms.

It’s also not very friendly to the dozen or so guests a day with walkers and canes who are forced to climb three flights of stairs.

Plans have been in the works for some time to relocate the hostel, though few details are available as the archdiocese is in talks with developers and government officials.

“We’re all eager for a move,” said Small.

Andrew Tobin, a Catholic from Surrey, has worked at the hostel for about two years. He said the experience has been eye-opening.

“There are people my age staying here, and people younger than me. It’s very easy to look at people and think, ‘I could never be like that.’ The more I work here, the more I realize it’s not that hard to think about being in that same situation myself,” said Tobin.

He said the hostel’s founders had impressive foresight and he is grateful it is still filling needs of people in the community 60 years later.

“A lot of the corporal works of mercy, we deal with on a daily basis,” he said. “It’s not like I’m thinking every time I go that I’m sheltering the homeless and clothing the naked, but it’s something nice.”

Former resident Bruce Nolte said he is grateful the hostel was there for him during a challenging time in his life. He felt supported by hostel workers who treated him like family and ended up finding stable housing and then coming back to the shelter to work part-time.

“Every day, I wake up and say thank you to [God] as far as my housing,” he said.

Ostertag also feels grounded in the Catholic identity and mission of the hostel. “I love doing this kind of work,” he said. “It’s God’s work.”

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