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Before Rev. Peter Young was serving poor people, addicts and former prison inmates throughout New York State, he taught religion at Cardinal McCloskey High School in Albany, now Bishop Maginn High School.

Jim Gaudet remembers Father Young fondly as his baseball coach at McCloskey in the 1960s. So when Mr. Gaudet was asked to put on a benefit concert with his local band, the Railroad Boys, for Peter Young Housing, Industry and Treatment (PYHIT), the answer came easily.

"He was a great leader," Mr. Gaudet said of Father Young, who also coached football and track and stressed the importance of social justice to the students.

Bill Lilly, McCloskey class of 1963, added that Father Young made his presence known beyond the school.

After sports practices, Father Young often joined students in pickup basketball games before returning to his parish to open the gym to neighborhood children. At night, he transformed the gym into a homeless shelter. He stayed with clients all night.

Role model
"I couldn't keep up with him then, and I can't keep up with him now," said Mr. Lilly, a retired teacher whom Father Young recruited about four years ago to renovate a complex of apartments and storefronts in Rochester.

Today, clients occupy three apartment units there at an affordable price, and business owners rent out a restaurant and a beauty parlor. A third storefront might become a classroom for clients to learn how to install green technology.

"There's nobody that I know who can say no to him," Mr. Lilly said of Father Young.

That said, it makes sense that concert organizers asked Mr. Gaudet to contact fellow McCloskey alumni and invite them to the show. Mr. Gaudet has been a part of the local music scene for 25 years.

He formed the Railroad Boys, a folk/bluegrass/traditional mountain music group, after retiring from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance about four years ago.

On learning about the concert, alumni are "sort of coming out of the woodwork to help," Father Young said.

PYHIT's 118 programs from Buffalo to New York City need a lot of help. Father Young has 30 percent more clients this year than last year, a result of the unemployment rate and jobs moving to the suburbs, where housing is less affordable than in cities.

Who's helped
Clients range from the former inmate trying to reintegrate into a community as a tax-paying citizen, to the working man with a gambling problem, to the single mother evicted from her apartment.

On PYHIT's website, they are described as "decent people who have - for one sad reason or another - succumbed to life's pressures."

"The need is just overwhelming," Father Young said.

Peter Young Housing, Industries and Treatment spends $1 million every week just to support staff members. Its budget comes from 41 different sources, like grants, Medicaid and social services, but it's not always enough.

PYHIT programs give clients money for buses or access to shuttles - but, often, they have no destination. Father Young needs volunteers to help clients with resumes and job counseling.

"I'm desperate for that kind of help," he told The Evangelist. "We need people to try to put hope out there, and that's what the Gospel is about."

(04/08/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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