December 6, 2023 at 10:38 a.m.

ALL IN THE ‘FAMILY’

Family Promise, which started in Albany in 2015, has been helping the homeless and asylum seekers for nearly a decade

Noemi (from l.) her husband, Enrique, and their children Michelle, 13, and Aron, 6, relax in the shared living space at St. Gabriel the Archangel Church in Schenectady. The church participates in the Family Promise of the Capital Region program and is one of several congregations in the area that hosts migrant families for a week at a time. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist) (Courtesy photo of Cindy Schultz)

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Aron sits on a rug filled with colorful Matchbox cars and building blocks in the basement of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church. He arranges the blue trucks, yellow cars and red SUVs bumper to bumper, while making car noises and proudly showing off his circular creation to everyone.

His parents, Enrique and Noemi, sit on a striped, tan couch with their daughter, Michelle, 13, pressed closely to her father, as they watch over this active 6-year-old boy. In parts English and Spanish, sometimes with the help of a translator, they tell of their harrowing asylum journey — which belies their now-comfortable surroundings — and how they made their way to this church in upstate New York. Enrique is from Peru; Noemi is from Bolivia. Michelle was born in Chile and Aron in Peru. From that country, they took a flight into Mexico and then a bus to the border.

“I was very worried — estoy muy preocupado — about Aron and Michelle and, of course, my wife,” Enrique says in Spanish. “The whole trip was very risky. We had no resources and didn’t know where to go.”

Noemi (r.) embraces Mary Giordano, executive director of Family Promise of the Capital Region, at St. Gabriel the Archangel Church. The church is one of several in the area that hosts migrant families for a week at a time. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist)

They made it to a shelter in San Antonio, where through the grace of Catholic sisters there, they received enough money to come to New York. They remained nervous as they were told not to come to New York State with two children. When they arrived in the winter, they stayed at the Salvation Army, where Enrique and Aron were separated from Noemi and Michelle. In what they called the first of two “milagros” or miracles, they were given the number of an organization that helps families just like them.

Enrique’s face brightens and his smile returns as he says he now has security for his family, a place to stay and a lawyer who is helping them on their asylum application. As the family readies for dinner, Noemi, who nodded in agreement with her husband but remained quiet, looks around the basement that has been converted into a cozy, living space and says, “This is the second miracle we have seen … Family Promise is my family.”

***

Family Promise of the Capital Region, which is an affiliate of the national organization, started serving homeless families — and more recently asylum seekers, as well — in the Capital Region in 2015. The local non-profit organization was started by Father Francis O’Connor, chaplain of the Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Americas. Its mission statement is: “To affirm the humanity and dignity of homeless families and to engage our community in helping them achieve sustainable independence.”

It is a community-based response to homelessness with nearly a dozen interfaith congregations in the Capital Region — including St. Madeleine Sophie and St. Gabriel’s in Schenectady, St. Matthew’s in Voorheesville, St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Schenectady, Mater Christi in Albany, St. Michael the Archangel in Troy, the parish of St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph in Rensselaer, and St. Vincent de Paul in Albany — providing shelter, meals and support for one full week, Sunday to Sunday, four times a year, to needy families.

Noemi greets Father James Belogi, pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist)

“The congregations who participate are either host congregations or support congregations. We have several that are Catholic parishes. We have other churches that are participating who are Reformed, Methodist,” said Mary Giordano, executive director. “We have a Lutheran church that has helped. We have a synagogue that participates, and what the congregations do is that they take space that they might use for something like religious education or choir practice, a meeting room, and they convert it to provide two to three families with their own space for an entire week. Then it rotates to the next congregation. We would love more congregations to participate but generally they host four to five weeks out of the year. So it is seamless until the family has secured affordable housing.”

The week begins with families arriving at the host site around 5 p.m., Sunday — they are driven there by Ish Munoz, transportation coordinator for Family Promise — and they stay there until around 7 a.m., the next day when Munoz returns to pick them up. Munoz speaks fluent Spanish, which is a big help, says David Ernst, Family Promise coordinator at St. Matthew’s.

“He can help us translate if we get into difficulty, which we often do,” Ernst said.

In the morning, they head back to the Family Promise Day Center, the former parsonage of Bethany Reformed Church on New Scotland Avenue in Albany, where the kids are picked up for school, the families can shower and do laundry, work on their amnesty applications, look for apartments or write resumes. With the help of other volunteers, they can take English classes. Around 5 p.m., that same day, they are back off to the host congregation.

Giordano said Family Promise has helped immigrant and asylum-seeking families not only from South and Central America but also from the Ivory Coast and Afghanistan. Some journeys are more perilous than others.

“One family we have, she was the only woman in her group that made it, just horrible, horrific situations. When you are around people who have endured what they have endured and they are smiling at you and you don’t know where this is coming from, it can only be God that they made it here,” Giordano said.

“Families who have experienced terrible mistreatment in their home countries come here because the United States is seen as a place where they can be safe. We should be honored to be in a position to help people. Any other response certainly isn’t what Jesus would be doing or calling on us to do for others.”

***

On the other side of the basement at St. Gabriel’s, Amparo, her husband, Marco, and their son, Rene, talk about their asylum journey from Ecuador, a country that is battling crippling unemployment and a bloody drug war.

In August, reform candidate for president Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated in Quito, the country’s capital, following a campaign rally. The six suspects in his murder, another was killed by police in a gun battle, were then killed in prison after their arrests.

Marco (from l.), his wife, Amparo, and their son Rene, 16, talk about their perilous journey to the United States from Ecuador. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist)

It is from this uncertain and violent backdrop that the family made their way from Quito, through the jungles of Colombia and then to Panama — through the treacherous Darien Gap — and into Central America on a perilous 25-day journey to Mexico. Amparo said every day was dangerous and they were lucky that they arrived safely in Mexico. When they left Colombia they were with a group of some 2,000 people, but they got separated, and when they made it to Mexico, they were part of just 10.

Marco and Rene wanted to turn back a number of times but Amparo would not let them. She wanted a better life for them in America — a place the family only knew of from the movies — even if that meant leaving her adult daughter, granddaughters and son-in-law behind.

“Hopefully one day we can reunite with my daughter and granddaughters,” she said in Spanish.

They have been with Family Promise for nine months and are graduating out of the program. They have an apartment in Albany, Rene, 16, attends Albany High School, which he says is easier than his school in Ecuador, and a lawyer is working on their asylum application.

“Everybody has been very welcoming,” Amparo said. “We are very grateful for a lot of people.”

Their gratitude can be seen by the big hugs they give the volunteers when they arrive in the basement, because it could be much worse.

***

Like most asylum seekers who have been bused to upstate New York, the reality of life hits them hard. They are in a foreign country, can’t speak the language and can’t legally work until they obtain work authorizations.

Many have been put up at the Sure Stay Best Western in Colonie, the Ramada Inn on Watervliet Avenue in Albany, or the Super 8 Motel in Rotterdam by a for-profit company called DocGo. The living conditions by all reports have been less than ideal. New York City partnered with DocGo on a $432 million contract to bus migrants from Manhattan and house them in upstate hotels. Amid allegations of spoiled food, lack of basic necessities and poor living conditions, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander launched an investigation and is contesting the contract. New York State Attorney General Letitia James is also investigating.

Noemi (from l.) Amparo and her husband, Marco, fill their plates with Italian food during the meal at St. Gabriel the Archangel Church. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist)

“They weren’t even getting their basic necessities met when they came here. They had no toiletries, no diapers. Some of them came with the clothes on their back. Now that is typical of some of our families when they join, but by the time they leave the program everyone has clothes. They have their basic needs met,” said Anna Hartz, co-coordinator for Family Promise Ministry at St. Madeleine Sophie/St. Gabriel’s. “I couldn’t believe that they would do that to those families. They just basically dumped them there with horrible food. How could you do that to people?”

The asylum seekers who come to Family Promise, however, were not part of DocGo.

“You have the organization that everybody has heard about — DocGo — and the intent of that was an organized way of relocating folks who were in New York City, and they felt that their system was being overwhelmed, and decided that they should send them to other places in New York State,” said Giordano, who receives referrals from social services, high schools and congregations, to name just a few. “Those families are housed at hotels. We, however, are housing families that have come up in a different way. Some of them have been bused here by well-intentioned, I suppose, people who provided them with the busing to Albany. For example, we had a family that came up and they had enough money from saving bottles to afford a room in a house. They were crowded in the room but their child was enrolled in school and the school guidance counselor called us and said, ‘Can you help them?’ ”

The other thing that separates Family Promise from other shelter programs is that they do not take government funding.

“All other local family shelters receive government funding and have contracts with the county Department of Social Services (DSS) who decide where to place the homeless family. DSS requires paperwork such as social security numbers that some families do not have, especially newly arrived immigrants and they are turned away,” Giordano said. “Family Promise does not require a family to prove their homelessness or have social security numbers and does not charge families for shelter. In addition, working individuals who are in government-funded shelters are charged for their stay.”

At Family Promise, with donations and grants, local businesses and the congregations all pitching in, coupled with a 500-person, interfaith-volunteer force, costs are low as well.

***

Hartz and Joan Duda, fellow co-coordinator for Family Promise Ministry at St. Madeleine Sophie/St. Gabriel, have set a long table with folding chairs for the meal this Thursday in late October. When Enrique arrives with his wife and two children, there are more hugs and smiles, which fills the space with energy as Aron expends some of his boundless youthful exuberance by running around the basement. All that is left is for the meal to arrive, which on this day is provided by Teshia Gutchell and Susan Nichols, meals volunteers. While normally prepared at home, the meal was purchased from Armondo’s in Schenectady. But before anyone can eat, there is prayer.

Family Promise volunteers Teshia Gutchell (from l.) and Joan Duda work in the kitchen with Susan Nichols, who chats with Noemi during dinner. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist)

Amparo leads the prayer in Spanish, thanking God for the friends she has made, the shelter they have found and the meal, which is chicken parmesan, pasta, bread, salad with Italian dressing and fresh fruit.

During the meal, there is banter in Spanish and English, and Marco shows a visitor pictures from his phone, including the day he first saw snow. Teshia and Susan implore everyone to eat, asking what the word for eat is in Spanish, saying they know it is “mangiare” in Italian. Almost in unison, the families say in Spanish, “comer!”

***

Giordano, who does all the screening of the families, is aided by assistant director Sister Nadine Farnum, RSM, Seanan Herrick, homeless prevention coordinator, and Chris Sheridan of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps. They make sure that the families stay together and are in the right spot. The goal is for the families to find a permanent home, so the first apartment or job might not be the right one. It is hard to do that in government-run programs in which people can’t really turn down the first job or apartment that comes their way.

“Mary is very conscientious in ensuring that she won’t get them out of the program just to get them out of the program. She is very picky about the apartments that she considers to be appropriate in that if the apartment is in the middle of nowhere and they don’t have public transportation to a job site or to schools, it is not that helpful,” Hartz said.

Amparo (in orange) leads the families in prayer before the meal. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist)

Adele O’Connell, Family Promise board member, noticed Family Promise’s unique approach in 2016 when she was working on the staff of the community relations department at CDPHP.

“We did a site visit to the day center at that time because they had applied for funding. The director of community relations and I both went and we were rather blown away by the program. It just made so much sense,” O’Connell said. “It was a very different approach from the traditional shelter programs. CDPHP ended up selecting Family Promise as one of their annual charities of choice one year and then I started volunteering and was appointed to the board that same year. In 2017, the Church of St. Vincent De Paul became a host site. My husband and I started doing overnights and cooking dinners for the guest families at that time.”

O’Connell also points to Giordano as the reason for the personalized care.

“Mary is such a faith-filled woman to begin with and so invested in the mission,” O’Connell added. “Her passion for the program came right through and the fact that it’s a very economical and personalized approach to meeting families’ needs. At the day center, Family Promise staff provides case management, helping secure housing, jobs, education, health care, language and legal services, whatever is necessary.

“The other thing about the program that is so impressive is the families really get a sense of belonging to the community because of their interaction with caring volunteers. Because of their interaction with the volunteers, maybe they know an apartment that is available or a job that they might be able to help them with. Volunteers have donated a car to those who needed it to get to work. They will donate furniture when a family is finally housed and needs to supply all the things that all of us need to set up a home. I also think that it has a tremendous, positive impact on the volunteers themselves.”

***

Without volunteers like Hartz, Duda, Gutchell, Nichols, and fellowship volunteers Cindy and Chuck Monson and Vinny and Kathy Rusch, overnight volunteers — just to name a few from St. Madeleine Sophie/St. Gabriel’s — this program could not work.

“I think every single volunteer who has interacted with the families that we are helping would tell you that they have brought great joy to their lives,” Giordano said. “There is no question in my mind that we are blessed to be given the opportunity to do this.”

Family Promise overnight volunteer Vinny Rusch greets Marco. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist)

Hartz agreed.

“I think it is a ministry that we get far more out of than we feel we give. Just the interaction with the families, to see them make progress through the program and ultimately graduate makes us all very happy,” she said. “We still keep in contact through Family Promise directly or, after some years, with the families themselves just to follow them and be part of their lives. They have all become friends. Some of them we have met as long as six years ago and we are still in contact with them.”

Hartz said before their host week there will be an announcement in the church bulletin asking for gift cards to help pay for groceries during the week, adding “we always make sure we have fresh fruit on hand, juice, milk, ice cream.” The dinners are provided by volunteers — of which there are about 50 on an email chain — who cook meals at their homes and warm them up at St. Gabriel’s. Volunteers have also been added from Our Lady Queen of Peace and St. Margaret of Cortona because Father James Belogi is also pastor there.

“It takes a lot because we host from Sunday to Sunday. We always need two people, whatever shift they are working,” Hartz said. “So we need to make sure that we have two overnight volunteers, at least two for fellowship, and at least two people or more for dinner time, someone to meet the van and welcome the families in the evening and such.”

At St. Gabriel’s, the volunteers use the basement of the church, while at St. Matthew’s in Voorheesville, there is a classroom wing that is adapted for living space. At St. Vincent de Paul in Albany, space in the pastoral center on Madison Avenue, which also houses the nursery school program, the religious education program and food pantry, is used for Family Promise.

***

Before the fellowship volunteers arrive at St. Gabriel’s, Joan realizes they are missing one thing: ice cream. After a brief chat with Rene, who is playing a soccer video game on his phone, she is out the door to Stewart’s Shops.

About 10 minutes pass until she returns with two half-gallons of ice cream — vanilla and chocolate — and one special pint. She remembered that Rene likes strawberry ice cream and after handing it to him, he says, “This is all for me!”

***

Pope Francis has made “welcoming that stranger” a key part of his pontificate, and just this year he has met with migrants and refugees from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, Congo, Libya and Ukraine.

In September, on a visit to Marseille, the port city in southern France on the Mediterranean Sea, the pope made an impassioned plea for those crossing the waters of the world’s most dangerous migration route, saying, “We need deeds, not words,” adding that “those who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued. It is a duty of humanity; it is a duty of civilization!”

Marco plays foosball with his son Rene after the meal. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist)

This concern for migrants could also be seen during October’s Synod on Synodality, where during an evening prayer service for migrants on Oct. 19, Pope Francis said: “Like the Good Samaritan, we are called to be neighbors to all the wayfarers of our time, to save their lives, to heal their wounds and to soothe their pain … Welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating: this is the work we must carry out.”

This is precisely the work that the volunteers of Family Promise are engaged in. It is through their words and deeds that they see these asylum seekers as human beings of value, not some horde, or a caravan, or an invasion.

“Any of the congregations that are involved as host sites see this as an opportunity and one that they value, and they demonstrate that value by the enthusiasm of their volunteering,” Ernst said. “But we are also reminded of the shared humanity that we have with people that are not from the same country or the same ethnicity or the same socio-economic class. They are all invariably, I can’t think of any exceptions really, so appreciative of anything that they get. And these two families that we have now from South America who have endured so much just in getting here.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) also have long been ardent supporters of migrants’ rights as well, and on Nov. 9, Bishop Mark J. Seitz, chairman of the bishops’ migration committee, urged Congress to pass additional protections for migrant children.

“Think about walking 3,000 miles just to get to the U.S. border and then making their way from there to Albany. They have endured a lot. We are happy to be able to help them keep their family intact and comfortable and reasonably assured that they won’t lack for hospitality while they are in the U.S. and hopefully their amnesty applications will be successful,” Ernst added. “I haven’t myself heard anything that I would construe as at all hostile and, in fact, it has been just the opposite. Volunteers are happy, and these people are so lavish in their expressions of thanks that it makes it easy to be helpful to them.”