People come to St. Joseph’s Place for many reasons. Some come for coffee and cookies, quiet conversation and a place to sit. Others come to use the bathroom or phone. There is free clothing — socks, underwear, hats and more — and sometimes bagged lunches to go. 

For regulars, the biggest draw is the nuns, three Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in their 70s who run St. Joseph’s Place. They provide comfort, care and counsel, which are intangible but very much needed.

“This is a safe haven,” Gregory Morton, 56, said while sipping coffee in St. Joseph’s Place’s brightly lit front room. “If they’re open, I’m here.”

St. Joseph’s Place is a drop-in center for the poor in Schenectady, New York. This small city thrived when General Electric was headquartered there but fell on hard times when the company began downsizing its local workforce. In recent years, Schenectady has undergone something of a renaissance. But the rising prosperity has left some behind, and that is who St. Joseph’s Place serves.

The center is open four mornings every week and receives 30-40 visitors daily. It shares space with the Sycamore Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that runs a large food pantry and occupies a busy intersection in Hamilton Hill, a troubled neighborhood where substance abuse, food insecurity and housing instability are common. 

This year, St. Joseph’s Place celebrated its 10th anniversary.

The center was the brainchild of the late Fr. Michael Hogan, a priest at St. Joseph’s Church, a nearby parish. Hogan believed Hamilton Hill would benefit from a Catholic presence, and he recruited Srs. Linda Neil and Ann Christi Brink of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Albany Province to run it.

Neil initially resisted the idea.