As an entry point within Connecticut's Emergency Response System, our shelter is a safe harbor for individuals and families to receive the critical services (sheltering; food; clothing; advocacy; case management and referrals; after-school tutoring; veteran's case management services; assessment and counseling services; and health screenings) they need to stabilize, recover, and overcome their housing crises.

Our Homeless Shelter served 516 unduplicated single men and women, and 38 families with 51 children in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. 

 

 

Our Soup Kitchen serves a nutritionally balanced, hot noon-time meal six days a week. Our Soup Kitchen provided food for individuals and families experiencing poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Our Food Pantry, which also operates in the same location, distributed weekly groceries  to people in the area experiencing poverty and food insecurity.  

In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, the Soup Kitchen served 59,394 cooked meals: This averages to over 163 meals per day.  The Soup Kitchen served 2,261 unduplicateed people between 7/1/24 and 6/30/25. 

The Food Pantry served 4,447 consumers in the fiscal year and distributed an equivalent of 52,295 bagged groceries.     

 

Our Thrift Store, in the center of Waterbury, provides relief to families and individuals living with the challenges of poverty, and offers them access to basic items and furnishings that are not affordable to them through conventional outlets.

The Thrift Store provided 1,188 people with clothing and 103 individual's families with furniture and home goods who were experiencing poverty in our community. This amounts to a total of $86,564 of goods to the community free of charge in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.

 

 

 

Among adults aged 18 or older in 2023, 5.7 percent ( or 14.6 million perople ) had Serious Mental Illness (SMI) in the past year.¹ SMI is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.² The symptoms of a serious mental illness can affect one's speech, mood, thinking, beliefs, or behavior.  With this in mind, people living with these challenges often need assistance and support with their recovery to transition successfully into independant living and into the community at large.   

Our Casa De Rosa Mental Health Residential Living Center, and our Cornerstone Mental Health Supervised Apartment Program both provide assistance with essential services critical to success, e.g., supervised housing and medication management; access and linkages to clinical, substance abuse, and medical services; coordination of care; and training in social cognition, recovery, and independent living skills.

Our Casa De Rosa Group Home served 13 unduplicated clients and our Cornerstone Supervised Apartment Program served 20 unduplicated clients in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.

1.  Key findings from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).  Retrieved August 30, 2024 from https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2023-nsduh-annual-national-report

2.  Serious Mental Illness (SMI) Among Adults. (n.d.). Prevalence of Serious Mental Illness (SMI) Retrieved June 24, 2024 from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness

 

Often, a minor intervention is all that is needed for a person to overcome homelessness. The shelter administers a rapid re-housing program to help guests move out of the shelter quickly. The program is short-term and designed to support guests with low housing barriers. Eligible guests are stabilized upon being housed, and wrap-around services are offered to help improve the chances of long-term housing stability, which ultimately reduces community costs related to homelessness.

 

The Shelter’s Rapid Re-housing Program served 20 unduplicated clients and 14 households in fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.

 

As the Waterbury shelters were at full capacity from December 1, 2023 through April 15, 2024, our organization provided coordination, oversight and services at the designated cold weather site (the Courtyard by Marriott). At the site, we were able to help families in need during the cold weather months who could not be sheltered elsewhere in Waterbury.

 

Our Cold Weather Site served a total of 9 families with 10 adults and 15 children who required shelter from the cold.

 

In December of 2020, in order to augment the existing Rapid Re-housing Program at the Homeless Shelter, the organization was granted Emergency Solutions Cares Act Funds through the City of Waterbury for a two-year period. Based on need, the program provides security deposits and short-term rent assistance (usually no more than 4 months) for homeless individuals and families residing within the St Vincent DePaul Mission Shelter, or within other shelters in the city. Aftercare services are included in the design of the program to better ensure housing stability, and any reduce barriers to success.

 

The ESG-CV Rapid Re-housing Program has housed 61 families with 38 children.  However between October 1, 2020 and June 30, 2023 the ESG-CV Rapid Re-housing Program has housed 108 households with 50 children. 

Our Society of Support (SOS) Program provides housing assistance and long-term case management services for individuals and families living with mental health disabilities. These disabilities interfere with their housing stability, health, and self-sufficiency. Providing housing assistance in conjunction with supportive services improves housing stability, self-efficacy, and opportunities for treatment and recovery. Supportive Housing is effective, and reduces the use of crisis services that are frequently used by people who are unsupported and homeless: emergency rooms, hospitals, jails, psychiatric centers, and detoxification programs.

The Society of Support Program served 7 families and 18 singles (28 unduplicated adults and 10 unduplicated children) in the fiscal year ending June 30th 2025.

In May of 2022, the St. Vincent DePaul Mission of Waterbury, Inc. started the Culinary Job Training Program, which was designed to teach trainees the fundamentals necessary to help prepare them for employment within a broad range of opportunities available in the food service industry.

 

All graduates of the program earn the title of Qualified Food Operator through the completion of the ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification Course, the nationally recognized course from the National Restaurant Association’s Educational Foundation.

 

The curriculum covers all facets of cooking within a commercial kitchen setting. The program includes 12-weeks of hands-on training and classroom work through an accredited Chef Instructor. Internships with local restaurants or other food services are made available as part of the training. Students have an opportunity to practice their culinary skills and give back to the community during classes by preparing healthy meals that are distributed to the St. Vincent DePaul Mission Soup Kitchen and Homeless Shelter Guests.

 

Beyond learning the culinary skill basics, trainees also review the essential elements of Job Readiness and Employment Skills so they are better equipped for successful employment. The program also assists with job placement and includes the fundamentals of employment search, applications, resume writing, and interviewing.

 

In the last fiscal year ending June 2025, the program has graduated 16 students.