Black is 85% African American
and Gray is 85% white. Dots
= families living below poverty
level. Greenfield is 53220
outlined in purple and North
Central Milwaukee is outlined
in red.

My veteran friend has had a tough life. Although he spent ten years in the military he was not entitled to any benefits except Medical help at the VA. After time on the streets he was finally able to get his life in place thanks to the Vet’s Place. However mental health problems prevented him from being able to keep a job.

I met him one day a few years ago when he came by the house looking for work. Except for times when he was restricted he would come by for a few hours a week, work in the garden and do some chores around the house and I would pay him a decent wage per hour worked.

For years, with the help of the VA, he had applied for Social Security Supplemental Income since the only source of income he had was from doing odd jobs. After rejections the money finally came through and he was able to get his own apartment on the South side. The VA and various veteran groups were of great help for him in the move. He called me up earlier in the week just looking for a few objects, like a bed frame and some pots and pans. He is living close to a few Catholic Churches on the South-side so I told him to call the central office of the St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) and ask for a home visit of the nearby St. Vincent de Paul Conferences.

He did call and the person who did intake on him told him St. Vincent de Paul had no conferences serving his area. He was confused since he lived near a few Catholic Churches. He called me back. I encountered this problem before, people in need living in poor neighborhoods being told by central office “we do not serve your area.” I had discovered earlier that the central office uses a very outdated computer system based on Church boundaries that no longer apply. I offered to purchase software based on GPS system that would tell the operator where the closest St. Vincent de Paul conference was. They rejected the offer and, instead, spend hours changing the boundaries when a conference expands its area or, in most cases, stops making home visits because of lack of funds or people to make the home visits.

Individuals like myself, wife and friend make home visits outside the area of our Church to neighborhoods like the North Central side, the poorest and most segregated area in Milwaukee. (Near South-side is the second most.) So when my friend called to say he was rejected for home visit I sadly was not surprised. The computer system said that the Church next door, like others churches on North and South side was no longer making home visits.

I called the Central office and asked for the person in charge of intake calls. I was given to someone who has worked there nineteen years and someone I knew. She gave me the line about how the Church right next door to his house had stopped making home visits and she was not sure if the Catholic Church conference a few blocks away was making home visits. She is the person who takes care of the outdated geographic system for assigning calls. I explained how our SVDP home visits team had just completed 16 home visits in an area far from our home and how the whole history of St. Vincent de Paul since the beginning at the University of Paris was for people to cross into areas of need to make home visits. She did not budge from her position. She did say that maybe he could just buy a frame and some pots and pans at the SVDP South-side thrift store. I guess that was true for her.

Over the years the central office of St. Vincent de Paul has grown into a major bureaucracy and has a nearly two million dollar budget for operating the central office, two meal programs and one thrift store on the South-side. A copy of the 2013–2014 approved projected budgets, put out by the central office, has 1.8 million dollars with over 99% going for compensation and operating expenses. All this has little to do with the Mission of the St. Vincent de Paul Society which is to make person to person home visits with people in need. The individual conferences raise their own funds and must pay 50–100% of the price of vouchers they give out to people in need. Conferences spend over 99% of their budget on serving persons in need.

Last winter the central staff, a few members of the Society and outside consultants decided to pursue a thrift store in the suburb in Greenfield, an area full of WalMarts’ and thrift stores that does not need another one rather than pursue a store in North Central Milwaukee where it is really needed. The St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store Mission Statement clearly states: “Serving Christ’s needy are the primary goal of all St. Vincent De Paul Stores.” In the Society all our money “belongs to the poor” so some of us were outraged when we heard of plans to spend millions of dollars to purchase, renovate and operate a thrift store in Greenfield which has an average household income of $42,586.00 rather than for a low or no cost create a thrift store in North Central Milwaukee where the average household income in one of the zip codes is $20,787.00.

I was outraged at the arrogance of the central office and highly paid staff spending millions of dollars, which according to the SVDP manual of USA belongs to the poor, while rejecting this veteran who was only seeking a little help from the competent home visits system they had created and maintained over the years.

I decided to wait awhile before calling my friend back and went out to the garden to work. When I came in he called and he told me that he had walked over to one of the nearby Catholic Churches and told them of his need for a bed frame and some pots and pans. They understood his need and said they would have someone call him.

Members of St. Vincent de Paul conferences who make home visits know what it is all about and know deep in their hearts that the money we take in does belong to the poor. Yet some silently go along with the Central Office thinking after all those years “they know best.” Since a few of us exposed this capital sin the central office and the few inside persons have proceeded in secret and with lack of transparency and without input of members. Somehow they got 1.9 million dollars to purchase the suburban property, are now contracting out renovation and soon plan to hire 30–50 persons in the suburbs; the store is too far for central city people to travel there, especially without a car. (Also the new store is in a 85% plus white neighborhood while North Central Milwaukee is 85% African-American.

Millions of money for the poor is being invested in the suburbs while the poor, like my friend, get poorer and find it harder and harder to survive. I am outraged. Are you?

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