Camillus House History
In 1960, when Brother Mathias Barrett, BGS accepted the invitation to serve the growing number of persons – primarily men – who had left Cuba in search of American-style freedom and were congregating near the Freedom Tower at night, the “face of homelessness” in Miami was different than it is now. The “soup kitchen” first established by Brother Mathias helped meet the basic physical and emotional needs of these persons and helped build a floor of caring on which they could re-build their lives and their livelihoods, and those of their families. Located in what was referred to in Brother Mathias’ correspondence as the “tenderloin district” of Miami, other early recipients of the Brothers’ charity unlimited were the working poor and older, marginally employed persons who typically suffered from chronic alcoholism.
Over the years, both the scope and size of Camillus House have changed, as have the “faces” of Miami’s homeless. The 1980's brought to the inner core of most major American cities, including Miami, concentrations of persons with a serious mental illness who either were denied admission to public mental hospitals, or were discharged from them under the rubric of deinstitutionalization. Some of these new residents of the streets of America’s inner cities were Vietnam War veterans disabled both by mental illness and drug addiction. Beginning in the late 1980's, the availability of cheap and potent illegal drugs boosted the populations of homeless persons, creating the need for a new and powerful counter-force: drug abuse treatment. As Camillus’ clientele changed, so did its services, adding substance abuse treatment, a health center, mental health care, transitional and permanent housing and additional outreach activities.
Today, nearly a half-century since Brother Mathias first exited the train from Albuquerque, upwards of 1,000 persons are provided emergency, transitional or permanent housing in one of the 13 residential facilities operated by Camillus from Homestead to Opa-Locka. Some of these persons are recipients of the more than 400,000 free meals provided annually by Camillus and the 27,000 medical encounters provided by Camillus Health Concern each year. And, after 22 years of trying, in 2006 Camillus House was given the “go ahead” by the Miami City Commission to build a new 340-bed campus that will serve as a one-stop center for emergency and social services, medical and behavioral health (mental health and substance abuse) treatment, job training and placement and housing assistance for persons who are or are at-risk of becoming chronically homeless in our community.