The corporal act of mercy, caring and providing for the unhoused and homeless brothers and sisters has been part of St. Joseph Parish – Mission San Jose for decades. Stan Peters, a long time St. Joseph parishioner along with his son Jon prepared and served lunch every Friday at Adobe Homeless Shelter, Fremont for 10 years. Then they initiated an ecumenical outreach to the homeless in 2002. Initially they served hot chili, pasta, bread at Central Park and then at Balboa Park in Fremont. Then they moved on to serving shelf-stable food along with Living Essentials like tents, sleeping bags, clothes, shoes, socks, hats, bicycles to the needy with the help of small group friends from the Parish. This act of mercy grew from reaching out from one day to two days and then to three days a week to meet the increased demand. This was supported by the donation from Parishioners and Parish and more volunteers joining the outreach and Stan Peters managed the finance and operation.    

Sharing and spreading the corporal act of mercy with the larger Parish community has been a long-underlying objective of this Homeless Outreach. After three years of constant effort interrupted by Covid-19 Pandemic and with the renovation of the Carriage House, Fr. Anthony Le made Homeless Outreach Ministry a Parish Ministry in 2024. Monsignor Manny Simas commissioned the HOM Office Bearers at the 10:00 AM Mass on December 8, 2024. Since then, Homeless Outreach Ministry, also known as HOM, has been operating at the Carriage House, now known as St. Joseph Workshop.

Homeless Outreach Ministry has been charted to provide subsistence and Living Essentials to the unhoused, in true alignment with the mission started by Stan Peters, through recruiting members and collecting donations from the Parish Community at large.

HOM membership has grown to 50 from about 10 and we reach out to average 120 unhoused every week from 70, since the start as Parish Ministry due to increased demand and expanded areas of our outreach. We’re able to do this because of the passionate and dedicated support of the volunteers and the generous support of the Parish Community.

Sustenance arm of HOM includes shopping, grocery bag making, and outreach / distribution to the unhoused. Shopping happens during the week, Grocery Bagging at 11:00 AM at St. Joseph Workshop, and Outreach on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week. Blessing Bag, a part of Grocery Bag with snacks inside and Words of Love outside are assembled every Thursday 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the St. Joseph Workshop as well.

Living Essentials arm of HOM include collecting and procuring new and gently used clothes, socks, hats, gloves, etc. as needed from the Parish community.

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For further info and to donate message or call:
Stan Peters: 510-468-8017
Lawrence Dass: 510-468-4494